alt Hacker NewsEU–INC – One Europe. One Standard. – Pan-European Legal Entity
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My Dear German friends, please accept that EU-inc is a massive boost for EU competitiveness. Continuing to block progress here only proves that the EU is good at making promises on paper but fails to deliver real change.
The reason this "28th regime" actually works—and bypasses the previous vetos — is that it’s optional. It doesn’t try to force Germany to change its local GmbH laws or kill the notary system overnight. Instead, it creates a parallel, voluntary path. Berlin doesn't have to give up its red tape for local shops, but they have to let a "Unified European Company" exist alongside them.
If we let national pride or local bureaucracy stop this again, we are essentially telling our best founders to leave for the US. Let’s stop protecting red tape and start protecting our future.
@dang This post is an Ad for unofficial merch, profiting from an ongoing news story. Should we change the URL ?
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/da/speech... https://tech.eu/2026/01/20/the-european-commission-launches-...
I wonder who owns this eu-inc.org website and is selling the merch.
In the ToS it states: >These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California
Yes please! I tripped over this recently. It's a bigger deal than it might seem.
You'd be surprised at some of the weird things that can happen in the current systems in the EU if you try to do business across borders.
Like: your company suddenly automatically becoming deregistered, or you might get a sudden huge tax bill, or you might even inadvertently get charged with fraud.
Hasn't happened so far knock on wood, but it's a lot more work to stay on the light side than you'd really like.
This is all because the national systems still sort of assume that you'll live and work and stay inside one EU country. You end up constantly fitting square administrative pegs into regulatory round holes.
A lot of the EU's promise is actually theoretical without a proper pan european legal entity.
I’m from Croatia, and starting and running a company here is expensive. Estonia makes it much easier, so you might think: why not open a company in Estonia?
But here is a problem: If your clients are in Croatia and you have a Croatian company, you don’t have to charge VAT if you earn under 60k per year. But if your company is in Estonia, you are required to charge VAT even if you earn under 60k.
As a Dutch person I never understood this push until someone told me (and this is true in 2026!!!) that if you open a LLC (Gmbh?) in Germany you have to physically go to the notary and have a person READ OUT all the statutes to you.
The whole process including banks accounts etc... can apparently take months in total.
Personally I would not create "EU-INC" but just make all local entities legal in every country. Then countries could compete to be the best system to attract companies and entrepreneurs.
Unfortunately this does not override employment and tax laws - so you still cannot hire someone as an FTE in Paris, from a startup in Berlin for example (without them being a freelancer, or you opening a payroll / tax office in France).
But hopefully we can move towards that - standardised taxation (especially VAT and corporation tax would help massively here), the abolition of notaries, standardised requirements for document certification, and EU-wide digital ID so no need to fly in and sign in person.
So, a privately held SE? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Societas_Europaea
This would help a lot. Many European startups are strongly local (also in talent search), because while moving is simple, share distribution and ownership structures are anything but, and investors usually don't want to bother with local regulation on that they don't even know.
Er, what exactly is this? It's not mentioned anywhere for laypeople like me. Perhaps they should focus on explaining what this project is, before asking for people to spread awareness. How can you spread awareness about something you don't even know what it is?
This + abolish VAT. The amount of money stolen in VAT scams is jn bilions of euros.
I always heard that the issue with startup investment in Europe was the general lack of capital investors willing to take Hail Mary risks on founders with a wild idea and maybe little experience. The market is far too risk-averse for a grassroots early-stage startup scene.
How would this organization address that fundamental psychological block?
Note we already have European Cooperative Society (SCE), but of course its not going to make a capitalist/shareholder fond mindset really appealed.
https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/proximity...
OK, but how is this going to be taxed? That's where the problem is. Maybe it will be cheaper to incorporate but then what, are individual countries going to lose on their expected taxes?
I would like to see the details on this. The EU has alredy jurisdictions that make it "too easy" to run a company and others that make it exceedingly difficult, and the two are in competition. It's one thing to start a company in cyprus, another to start in Germany.
TBH I doubt it's going to be possible with current status. Where will an EU-inc be based, Luxembourg? and how would that be different from any other Lux company.
But maybe we could at least have some business standards that will be enforced all over the EU. It says "Local taxes & employment" , which also means local laws, which means 27 laws for every little thing. I thought they were going to address that
Can some people share why there is a need for incorparation on European level? Lobbyist fighting for it so but I don't get the problems to solve it.
Isn't there already the SE (Societas Europaea) [0]? How does this differ? Would be good to address in the FAQ.
EU like making new regulation. There are simpler steps to make doing business here easier:
-force banks to respect EU free trade union and stop them from discriminating EU citizens and companies who are not citizens
-stop abuse when it comes to currency conversion rates
-raise VAT-free threshold to something that doesn't catch very small companies, 200k EUR in sales to EU would be a good start (currently it's 10k)
-force EU countries to move all the bureaucracy online; it's very realistic, Poland has done it (it's not 100% yet but close to it)
-enforce English as 2nd official language for business related paperwork
Instead I am pretty sure we will get more paperwork, requirements and way for bureaucrats to prolong every process and request more documents on the way.
I'm skeptical. At least Germanic countries love their bureaucracy. It's an etatism thing.
This is good, but don't think it will change much. The EU suffers from bureaucracy and disparate rules for each country, which is a pain in the ass for startups, it really needs unification on taxes, and less rules.
Its not that difficult to setup a company in Europe. Tedious but not impossible.
What's really difficult is setting up a compnay and opening a bank account in the company's name from abroad.
I scrolled it high level but it does not look to me like this is solving any real problem and probably its creating new ones. Sure if you are cash strapped startup and can't afford getting a tax advice or an investor that does not want to pay for a due diligence this could save some money on paper. Most of the supposed benefit of this pan European legal entity seems problem that has been already solved in the real world. The same type of entity works more or less the same through out of Europe with mostly marginal difference, and sounds more like an excuse than anything. Of course each jurisdiction has is own jurisprudence which make the landscape more complex, but once you get a new type of "inc" you are going to get new jurisprudence, only that in this case you are going to be a lot of jurisdictions conflicts and potentially you might have to take into account multi-jurisdictions jurisprudence making everything even more complex. Also I would remove as second point an "EU-central registry", it's not exactly a killer feature considering that all the European registries are currently accessible from a single web page already.
I have seen promotion of this idea multiple times but every time I read about it I fail to understand the gains.
I’m based in Denmark and have incorporated multiple companies. It is very easy and digital and costs very little, even if you get a lawyer to do it for you.
Maybe the issue is a few member states that are behind on digitalization?
In my experience EU is better at setting the guidelines and then the member states can implement the details themselves. When they try to push things it becomes bureaucratic - just look at the cookie law and GDPR. Both great ideas but overly complicated.
Doesn't Estonia already offer something similar?
In principle this is a good idea.
In practice ... there is always so much bureaucracy and inertia. I don't think the current EU model works well. I also don't think a copy/paste USA 2.0 works either, yet this seems to be the primary objective by the people in Brussels (that is, = politicians, not all folks in Brussels of course). There is such a huge disconnect between what people such as Leyen babble, and what people want or need or may want. And a lack of decision-making power too. So I think most of those projects will end in failure.
Personally I think an EU model will only work when the agendas are NOT unified, because unification leads to disagreements. You can already see this happening in regards to politics or war - some countries want to, oddly enough, serve Russia. That may be a fine decision for a state, but if other states push for another approach, you have a problem here. Now there are discussions to simply isolate the "non-compliant" states, but this is a bad approach since it will again lead to fragmentation and more people being angry at Brussels here. So this is a failing model. Splitting up things into separate aspects will also, of course, lead to more bureaucracy, but states would more easily form a specific opinion and align towards that, without being handicapped by other states that don't want to go that route. I don't see any other way for this to work. The EU in its present form is just setup for failure - the current model simply does not work, and the proposed new model is even worse in many ways e. g. 2/3 majority basically means that the big states will dominate the small ones. For instance, if Germany and France want to go to war against Russia (let's assume this were the case), then they'd have to send troops to the front - and they are unwilling to do so. So other states are more likely to be threatened. That model not only does not work but is also unfair.
Of course legal or taxation models are different to war, but the different countries have different wealth and opportunities, so a one-size-fits-all also can not possibly work. We saw this with the EURO where weaker countries struggle permanently. The whole EU needs to be completely re-designed - and this is not going to happen due to inertia alone.
I am also looking for a stripe atlas alternative.
Having a EU based one will be great.
It says "Pan-European" everywhere, but would this include the UK?
There is a search box at the bottom of every HN page ;)
Already being discussed: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46703877
Of all the challenges you face as a startup, the legal entity you choose is possibly the least consequential. Just choose a jurisdiction where investors understand how the legals work (Delaware C-corp, UK Ltd is OK too) and there's a finite administrative burden and/or commoditized tooling in place to help you handle it.
Now, that may not work in all jurisdictions for reasons of local taxation etc (and you'll have to work out payroll tax, benefits etc) but that's almost never anything to do with the legal entity type!
Can you guys please somehow involve Switzerland too? I'm thinkng about moving there and my German employer is like, "No! Even France would be extremely hard, Switzerland is plain impossible for payroll!".
Dude come on, I know they're not in the EU but like, there it feels like practically the same country if you don't mind the loveable accent and the crazy prices in another currency :)
> Local taxes & employment
Completely and totally defeats the purpose.
IMO this is half-measures. You wanna a strong EU? Merge the salaries and living standards from the north the south and west to east. Germans workers shouldn't blackmailed by auto-motive companies leaving for Poland unless they accept smaller salaries and vice-versa polish workers shouldn't emigrate to Germany to find a decent salary, pension, etc.
Flat out these social differences and you'll have the social support you need to fight and/or collaborate as equal with everyone else. It's very simple.
ps. I'm not saying everybody should stay "put". But ppl shouldn't be migrating within the EU for these reasons. That was the initial goal anyway, then they started celebrating things that no one in the EU cares about as if it's something that matters (i.e. Apple vs EU dispute over the charger...)
Anybody get a xkcd 927 [0] feel here?
Also to move forward maybe it is time to stop using words like "innovation", "ecosystem" and "startups" all over because they seem to have lost their meaning over time.
Most of Europe have been screaming those buzzwords, invested a lot of money and tinkered its bureaucracy to enable them for at least 25 years. With obviously very little results.
So maybe it is time to think out of the box.
Maybe the real "ecosystem" includes the people cleaning the toilets, the farmers growing potatoes and the electricians. Those people are even more crushed by the bureaucracy. Maybe lifting up everybody is the way forward.
I would welcome any reform that does not target a specific type of actor (like "startups"), need to be plugged in to the latest tax shelter or need for a lawyer.
- [0] https://xkcd.com/927/
IMO Europe will lose its soul if it tries to be too competitive. Once it becomes too easy to start a business or raise capital, it becomes easy to spiral into workaholism. Gone will be the days of month long holidays and leisurely pace.
omg, another jaw dropping nonsense!!!
I still can't believe that we live in a world where those in power can roll out literal scams and people are grateful to them for making their lives easier - The government is basically providing minor relief from their own regulatory oppression, in order to further centralize control. Humans are dumb. It's infuriating.
It's called "Limited Liability" - The problem is fully encapsulated right there in two words, self-explanatory. How am I the only person who realizes how corrupt this is as a concept? Now say "Corporate Personhood."
Now combine the concepts "Limited Liability", "Corporate Personhood" and "Globalization" - How is it not 100% clear that this is a horrible, horrible combination of ideas! Satanically horrible.
You shouldn't need to set up some fictitious structure to carry out a business. You should be able to categorize your company however you want; a club, a team, a blockchain, a gang - You and your team provides a service, you get paid, you split the profits by whatever mechanism you see fit. We don't need to all agree on the terms. I can't stop thinking how dumb this is and how much I hate participating in this retarded system.
We're a failed species. I hope the AGI replaces us soon. Humans should be stripped of any power and laws abolished.
There is nothing hindering European startups to raise money from all over Europe. Except that Europeans hate to invest in real businesses and love investing in real estate.
American startups and businesses get investor money from all over the world, including from Europe. Willingness to invest in startups depends on the downstream of willingness to invest in business in general. If venture capital investors know that there's a lot of money willing to invest after the startup phase, then they are willing to take more risks. And so on for every phase of investors, until you reach big institutional investors like retirement funds.
It looks like the proponents here have fallen into the classic European thinking: "Let's talk and make papers to make our wishes become true". Instead of trying to understand reality and why things are the way they are.
They should ask themselves why any European investor would want to invest in a European startup instead of in an American startup. They should ask themselves why European entrepreneurs should create their startup in Europe instead of in America. When they have the answers to those questions they know what solutions to propose.
My experience doing business in and with America has been nothing but fantastic. They have all the infrastructure and all the culture to help entrepreneurs and anybody who wants to do business. They want to do business as well. Need a credit card processor? Need an LLC? Need a bank account? Need a business loan? It's easy, the USA is fucking open for business.
In Europe it is hostility mostly all the way, from banks to regulators to governments, and so on. The easy part is registering a company, which is just as swift in Europe as it is in the USA. But apart from that you won't find any friends in the process. Even if you're European. Even in the country and the city you were born in.
Americans love new things and new ideas and see them as opportunities. Europeans see them as threats. And that is mirrored everywhere you turn. You might agree with the European perspective in a society-wide perspective, but for startup businesses the American mindset fits much better.
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Local Taxes… the issue with EU is the taxes and cost of labour.
Can't work legally speaking. There has to be a single sponsoring member state. Just sadly how the EU is designed.
The only way would be to copy it individually so it is the same in each member state which breaks the purpose of it.
It's inordinately difficult and expensive to start an LLC or SA in some EU countries. It's even difficult and expensive to _stop_ an LLC and dissolve it. Huge amount of risk and cost on founders and a huge distraction from running a business.
I think that EU-Inc _could_ be an improvement, but it needs to avoid the committee laundry list of ideas/requirements/form fields that plagues the EU startup ecosystem. My worry is that the end result will require notarized declarations of honour, financial plans stretching decades into the future, 30 page business plan documents, reams of corporate governance documents, and tons of other nonsense to protect against the perceived risk that someone who failed at starting a business once fails a second time.
There needs to be UX requirements on the process from day one against which the end result is judged. (E.g. "a company should be able to register in x days", "a complete application should be no longer than y pages", "application costs should be less than z euros").