“EU Inc”: creating a single set of rules for a new type of European businesses
Fascinating developments yesterday in terms of simplification and integration across the European Union when it comes to setting up companies which can trade across the bloc.
During a speech at Davos on Tuesday 20th January 2026, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen committed to “put forward a single set of rules for companies to scale and grow across Europe — EU Inc — with a single and simple set of rules that will apply seamlessly all over our Union”.
She explained the reasoning:
We live in an age where capital and data can cross Europe in a second. And business must be able to move just as freely. But as things stand, too many companies have to look abroad to grow and scale up — partly because they face a new set of rules every time they expand into a new Member State. So while on paper the market of 450 million Europeans is open to them, it is far more complicated in reality. And that acts as a handbrake on the growth and profit potential of companies. This is why we need a new approach. We will soon put forward our 28th regime. The ultimate aim is to create a new truly European company structure. We call it EU Inc., with a single and simple set of rules that will apply seamlessly all over our Union. So that business can operate across Member States much more easily
This announcement is part of work on the “28th regime”, the European Union’s bid for a harmonised legal framework for businesses throughout the EU which was consulted on in 2025 following a campaign started in 2024.
On the same day as von der Leyen’s speech, members of the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to adopt recommendations to support the creation of what they call a ‘Societas Europaea Unificata’ (S.EU — Unified European Company). These will feed into the Commission’s proposal (due by the end of March):
MEPs propose that any non-listed limited liability company based in one of the 27 EU countries will be able to register as an S.EU in 48 hours, with a minimum paid-in capital of only €1 — but that doing so should be restricted just to natural or legal persons who are resident or established in the EU.
Rapporteur René Repasi said: “Today’s vote shows that Europe can and must fix what has long held innovators back against global competitors. Our vision of the S.EU would allow companies to set up within 48 hours, fully digitally and across borders. At the same time, the European Parliament wants to see robust social standards as part of this new regime.”
The proposal text highlights that “fragmentation and lower growth perspectives push innovative companies to seek financing outside Europe” noting that “the global business environment increasingly demands agility, digitalisation and access to diverse markets and talent pools, something many Union companies currently struggle to achieve due to regulatory complexity and inconsistent frameworks”.
To succeed, the 28th regime “must be ambitious in substance and in form” to achieve the “strategic step towards further deepening the internal market, thereby advancing European integration and competitive strength”.
The S.EU should be “fully integrated” with the push for European business wallets and there should be “further development and adaptation of a single Union company identifier to streamline registration, boost transparency and trust, facilitate company identity verification, and combat fraud, money laundering and tax evasion”.
The Parliament also “encourages the Commission to work on interoperability with global initiatives for company identifiers” which is a positive development for the Global Open Data Integration Network that I help to run with the team from the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation.
In terms of an S.EU identifier:
Upon creation, an S.EU should receive a unified digital identity and company identifier to streamline registration, boost transparency and trust, facilitate company identity verification, and combat fraud, money laundering and tax evasion, while ensuring legal certainty.
It will be very interesting to keep an eye on these developments and how they will impact company registration, identifier issuance, beneficial ownership transparency and anti-money laundering or know your customer checks trends across the EU in coming years.
Between the EU Inc proposals, European business wallets to speed up UBO checks; and ongoing work to align beneficial ownership data formats across the EU, there has never been a greater need for high-quality interoperable beneficial ownership data.
For four years, I was the product owner of the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard, the world’s leading open standard for beneficial ownership information and continue to advocate to improve beneficial ownership data quality and standardisation. To learn more or if you need technical guidance or consultancy support, contact me via beneficialownership.co.uk.
