BRUSSELS, Jan 21 (Reuters) – The European Commission will propose a single set of rules under which innovative companies would operate across the 27-nation European Union to make startups stay in Europe, rather than move to the U.S., the head of the Commission said on Tuesday.
In a speech at the Davos economic forum in Switzerland, Ursula von der Leyen said this would offer companies the range of the EU’s single market of 450 million consumers, which is now fragmented by different national rules.
“Today, the European Single Market still has too many national barriers,” von der Leyen said. “Sometimes companies are dealing with 27 national legislations.
“We will offer instead to innovative companies to operate all across our Union under one single set of rules. We call it the 28th regime. Corporate law, insolvency, labour law, taxation – one single and simple framework across our Union,” she said.
The move is part of the EU’s efforts to retain innovative firms to stay in the race for technologies of the future which would allow the European economy to stop emitting CO2 and help prevent climate change.
