Signal EU work on a uniform '28th legal regime' for companies

Summary

The report recalls that the Lisbon strategy of 2000 set the goal of making the EU the most competitive knowledge economy in the world. More than a quarter of a century later, market fragmentation caused by differing national rules still stops companies from fully benefiting from the European market. The EU is therefore drafting one uniform set of company rules under a new '28th legal regime' so that firms can operate more easily anywhere in the Union. The report lists a fragmented market, less risk capital and protective but slow regulation as reasons why the EU struggles more than the US and several Asian countries to turn innovations into commercial products and services. Innovation has sped up markedly since 2018 but varies widely between member states, with Sweden and other northern and western European countries in the lead. The push for a single rulebook is presented as a response to these structural weaknesses.