Europe could soon have its own equivalent of the Delaware C Corp, but its advocates aren’t releasing the pressure on lawmakers. In an open letter released on Thursday, a who’s who of Europe’s startup scene stressed that this new corporate status shouldn’t be watered down.
The letter is the latest step of the EU Inc campaign, a movement calling for an EU-wide company statute that would let companies incorporate under a common framework and operate across the bloc. Its promoters have secured endorsements from the European Union’s top authorities, but now are expressing concern that the final legislation could become “unusable if its central features are weakened.”
As usual with European lawmaking, various national lobbies have entered the chat, including Germany’s notaries, whose association has criticized aspects of the European Commission’s proposal. But negotiations are still ongoing for the European Parliament and Council to settle on a final text, and EU Inc’s promoters are pointing out what’s at stake.
With some 100 days left before European institutions shut down for winter recess, the letter calls on policymakers to preserve the proposal, saying it the potential to “remove much of the friction and fragmentation that continue to throttle European companies, unlock investment and spur a new wave of entrepreneurship.”
