There's no stock option mechanisms available in most of EU.

You get someone you cannot tempt him with "do a great job and get X amount of equity".

In Italy it is not enforceable, even if you sign a contract.

With this, startups can only compete with bigger companies on salary, hard, and don't get equally motivated hires to get a piece of a company. You get people there for the paycheck.

It's also unfriendly to venture capitalists, for different reasons.

So corporate law is a major problem in most of EU, as it's unfriendly both to investors and employees.

Also, firing people is hard in EU. You hire the wrong person, you're stuck with it.