What the Commission is doing
The Commission has put startups, research and innovation among the key priorities of its mandate, with the goals of closing the innovation divide between the EU and its global competitors and boosting competitiveness, bearing in mind the Letta Report on the future of the Single Market and the Draghi Report on European competitiveness.
The Strategy proposes a comprehensive set of actions to make the EU the best place in the world to launch and grow technology-driven innovative companies.
It focuses on helping innovators, founders and investors to Choose Europe by improving the conditions for startups and scaleups, enabling them to capitalise on new geopolitical opportunities and reducing the reasons to relocate outside the EU. It sets out legislative, policy and financial support measures, at both EU and Member States level, to address the needs of innovative companies throughout their development.
Key actions are focused on fostering innovation-friendly regulation, improving access to finance, accelerating market uptake and expansion, attracting and retaining the best talent and facilitating access to infrastructure, networks and services.
The Startup and Scaleup Strategy will be closely linked to other flagship actions of the Competitiveness Compass, such as the "Savings and Investments Union", the "Single Market Strategy" or the "Union of Skills".
The EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy aims to make Europe a great place to launch and grow global technology-driven, innovative companies.
Why the strategy is needed
Startups and scaleups are amongst the key drivers of innovation, as they often develop and introduce breakthrough innovative products and solutions to the market. A thriving startup and scaleups ecosystem plays a key role in economic growth and market evolution by driving productivity, incentivising investments and creating quality jobs.
EU startups and scaleups have the potential to create new markets in which the EU can take global leadership, while increasing the EU’s competitiveness by closing the innovation gap with its main global competitors.
A Startup and Scaleup Initiative was adopted in 2016 aiming to remove barriers for startups to scaleup in the Single Market. The European Innovation Council was launched in 2018, as Europe’s flagship innovation programme to identify, develop and scale up breakthrough technologies and game changing innovations.
However, the regulatory and business environment in the EU is still not sufficiently conducive for bringing innovative products, services and solutions to users at the necessary scale. As a result, many innovative companies end up seeking venture capital and expanding opportunities outside Europe: around 60% of all global scaleups are based in North America, in contrast with only 8% in the EU. The share of the EU in the global share of venture capital raised is only 5%, compared to 52% in the United States, or 40% in China.
It has now become urgent to address the financial, regulatory and administrative obstacles that limit or slow down startups from scaling up into mature, profitable companies in the Single Market and to incentivise them not to relocate out of the EU.
Latest
Research and innovation news alert: The European Commission urges Member States to step up reform of national research policies.
Today, the European Commission has launched the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, ‘Choose Europe to Start and Scale', to make Europe a great place to start and grow global technology-driven companies. The Strategy aligns with the broader ‘Choose Europe' initiative, launched by President von der Leyen
Events
At the initiative of the Commission, public authorities, organisations private entities, various events, meetings and fora are being organised to gather the views of stakeholders.
European Startup and Scaleup Forum
As announced by Commissioner Zaharieva in her hearings at the European Parliament, a series of meetings with founders, CEOs and other stakeholders the European Startups and Scaleup Forum will be organised in 2025, to support the Commission in developing the Startup and Scaleup Strategy.
This exercise brings in the process the experience and voices of innovation stakeholders, that together with other forms of consultation will usefully contribute to develop the strategy, from inception to implementation.
The first meeting took place on 17 February, followed by a second meeting on 25 April. Additional meetings will take place over the course of the year.
