Commission proposal for 28^th company law regime gets mixed reception

The European Commission has presented its proposal for a 28^th company law regime to help innovative companies launch more quickly and avoid the obstacles and bureaucracy of dealing with 27 separate national regimes.

Announcing the proposal on 18/03/2026, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: “Europe has the talent, the ideas and the ambition to become the best place for innovators. Yet today, European entrepreneurs who want to scale up face 27 legal systems and more than 60 national company forms. With EU Inc., we are making it drastically easier to start and grow a business all across Europe.”

She added that an entrepreneur would be able to “create a company within 48 hours, from anywhere in the European Union, and fully online”.

The proposal, which has to be agreed by EU member states and the European Parliament before coming into force, has met a mixed response from a leading MEP, industry groups and influential economists.

René Repasi, a German centre-left MEP, who drafted a report on a 28^th regime, gave the Commission's proposal a mixed response. "The option…