Regime0: Kickstarting growth with an EU wide startup incorporation regime

At this event our Senior Fellows Fiona Scott Morton and Reinhilde Veugelers presented their publication Regime 0: Europe-wide incorporation for startups to kickstart innovative growth. The document proposes “Regime0,” a new, optional EU-wide incorporation regime designed to enable ambitious, innovative startups to easily form companies that can scale across the European Union without facing the current patchwork of business regulations, taxation, and labour laws that hinder growth and cross-border expansion. 

By offering a digital-first, English-language platform (EUHub0) with uniform rules in key areas —incorporation, access to finance, employee equity stakes, corporate governance, bankruptcy, and efficient cross-border operation—Regime0 aims to attract entrepreneurs who would otherwise found their startups outside Europe. 

The proposal is intentionally targeted to new startups that are innovative and high-growth (not to existing large firms or local SMEs) and is crafted to avoid undermining member states’ authority in sensitive areas like labour law and tax rates. The authors argue that such a regime would generate large economic benefits at minimal public cost, boost EU productivity growth, retain top talent, and foster a climate of Schumpeterian innovation and competition across the single market; it would help the EU close its entrepreneurship gap with the US and China.