New Rules for Europe's Startups
Published January 20, 2026
Goal: Create a unified business environment
The European Parliament passed a resolution creating a new EU company type called Societas Europaea Unificata (S.EU) that lets small and medium businesses set up a single, easy‑to‑register company that can operate across all 27 member states, with digital tools, low capital, and worker protections.
Summary
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on 20 January 2026 in Strasbourg, proposing a new “28th regime” – a unified legal framework for innovative companies called Societas Europaea Unificata (S.EU). The goal is to give small and medium‑sized enterprises (SMEs), start‑ups and scale‑ups a single, harmonised company form that works across all 27 Member States, reducing regulatory fragmentation and making it easier to raise capital, hire talent and expand.
Key points
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Legal basis | Directive under Articles 50 and 114 TFEU, adopted by qualified majority. |
| Scope | • Limited‑liability company, not listed. • Can be a single entity or a parent/sub‑sidiary. • Must be resident or established in the EU. • Registered seat in any Member State; can move seat without dissolution. • Minimum paid‑in capital for registration: €1 (regardless of national minimum). |
| Creation | • Fully digital registration, “once‑only” principle. • Registration completed within 48 hours. • Company receives a unified digital identity and a single EU company identifier. |
| Digital portal | • Union‑level portal (linked to existing Business Register Interconnection System) for registration, filing, and access to model documents. • Supports multilingual access, e‑signatures, share transfers, and e‑invoicing. |
| Safeguards | • Must respect EU and national labour law, including employee participation. • Cannot be used to bypass mandatory worker protections. • Employee participation rules apply in the state of the registered office and in any state where employees work. |
| Optional features | • Steward ownership, dual‑class shares, veto shares, and other protective structures to guard against “killer acquisitions.” • Employee stock‑ownership plans (ESOPs) and stock‑option plans (ESOs) with harmonised rules, non‑discriminatory and voluntary. |
| Capital access | • Harmonised equity‑like debt instruments (e.g., profit‑participation loans) that do not give control. • Standardised multilingual model articles of association and shareholder agreements. |
| Dispute resolution | • Specialised panel or alternative dispute resolution mechanism for S.EU‑related disputes, excluding labour law cases. |
| Impact assessment & review | • Commission to publish a comprehensive impact assessment at proposal time. • Regular review every 4 years to assess adoption, competitiveness, and protection standards. |
| Timeline | • Commission to submit proposal by Q1 2026. • Financial implications to be covered by budget. • Resolution forwarded to Commission and Council. |
The resolution stresses that the 28th regime should be ambitious, uniform across the EU, and designed to give innovative companies the tools to compete globally while protecting workers, investors, and the public interest.
Licensing: The summaries on this page are available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).
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