On the 28th EU regime (“EU Inc.”): Simplifications should be available to all companies
Date
Frankfurt, 17 March 2026 – Regarding the European Commission’s upcoming proposal for a 28th regime (“EU Inc.”), which is intended to facilitate the foundation of companies within the EU, VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann says:
• “The proposal for an “EU Inc.”. is a step in the right direction toward a unified European corporate structure. The machinery and equipment manufacturing industry, which is dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises, makes extensive use of the EU Single Market and should be able to benefit from it.”
• “For EU Inc. to be effective and successful, simplified conditions must apply equally to all businesses. Limiting the scope to innovative business models is not helpful. It remains unclear at this time what exactly constitutes an innovative business or what happens when a business is no longer a startup or scale-up. SMEs also deserve the opportunity to easily utilize this new tool. There is an urgent need for legal certainty and clarity in this area.”
• “Further harmonization of corporate, insolvency, labor, and tax law — which is currently under discussion — is neither necessary nor advisable. It would fail to take into account the different legal traditions and business models in the EU Member. Furthermore, the associated process would likely take significantly longer than the current situation requires. We need sensible and effective solutions quickly to further boost the competitiveness of businesses.”
The VDMA represents 3500 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and SMEs. The companies employ around 3 million people in the EU-27, more than 1.2 million of them in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU-27 and in Germany. In the European Union, it represents a turnover volume of an estimated 870 billion euros. Around 80 percent of the machinery sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing plant in the domestic market.