European Commission Launches "Choose Europe to Start and Scale" Strategy

The European Commission has launched theEU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, ‘Choose Europe to Start and Scale’, to make Europe a great place to start and grow global technology-driven companies. The Strategy aligns with the broader ‘Choose Europe’ initiative, launched by President von der Leyen. This initiative focused first on the science component promoting a unified European approach to attract and retain talent, thereby strengthening Europe’s competitiveness.

The strategy addresses key startup needs through five main areas:

• Fostering innovation-friendly environment: The Commission will propose a European 28th regime to simplify rules and reduce failure costs across insolvency, labour and tax law. The European Business Wallet will enable seamless digital interactions with public administrations, while the European Innovation Act will promote regulatory sandboxes.
• Driving better financing: The strategy aims to expand the European Innovation Council, deploy a Scaleup Europe Fund for deep tech scale-ups, and develop a European Innovation Investment Pact to mobilise institutional investors in EU venture capital funds and unlisted scaleups.
• Supporting market uptake and expansion: The Lab to Unicorn initiative includes European Startup and Scaleup Hubs connecting university ecosystems, with blueprints for IP commercialisation, licensing, and spinoff creation.
• Attracting and retaining top talent: The Blue Carpet initiative focuses on entrepreneurial education, employee stock option taxation, and cross-border employment, plus fast-track schemes for non-EU founders.
• Facilitating access to infrastructure: A Charter of Access for industrial users will simplify and harmonise startup access to technology and research infrastructures.

Businesses that are born in Europe must grow in Europe. With the launch of the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, we unlock growth drivers for Europe’s most innovative and promising companies. We cut red tape, we facilitate their access to financing, we improve their ability to do business across our Single Market. In other words, we want to put Europe right in the middle of the global innovation map, for companies and investors. Europe we can lead on its own terms and be the place where innovation thrives. – Stéphane Séjourné, Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy

The EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy is a clear statement of purpose: to make Europe the best place in the world to start and grow a business. The Strategy will enable us to turn Europe’s wealth of creativity, research and ambition into thriving new companies, quality jobs and real-world impacts. With the five concrete actions, we are removing the barriers that hold our entrepreneurs back. Europe is ready to scale up. – Ekaterina Zaharieva, Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation

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