EU Inc: a sentiment and structure report
What 2,051 founders and startup employees across six European markets think about the twenty-eighth regime, and the questions the proposal has not yet answered.
What is in the report.
EU Inc. proposes to create a single, harmonised company form available in all twenty-seven member states, sitting alongside national forms as a twenty-eighth option. It is not law.
This report sets out what the proposal does and does not do, what the market actually thinks of it, and the questions a company would have to resolve before adopting it.
What EU Inc is, and how we have got here
The instrument itself, the Letta and Draghi origin, the campaign, the timeline to date, and what remains contested in the negotiation.
Method and coverage
A six-market quantitative survey run across May – July 2026.
Doyle Blackfriars' read
Where the instrument succeeds or fails, framed as opportunity and risk: a scaling proposition being received as a formation proposition.
The open questions
The existing company, parallel structures, tax, the empty investment layer, formation intermediaries and the absence of a forum.
Germany
The market that knows the most about EU Inc, carries the heaviest formation costs, and is the least interested in adopting it.
France
Formation is already fast, cheap and digital here, which raises the sharpest question in the report: what is the regime actually offering?
Spain
A market where incorporation still requires a public deed and a personal appearance, and where the forty-eight-hour promise meets a statutory intermediary.
Netherlands
Founders here are the most likely to be making the decision themselves, in a jurisdiction where the notary is involved not only at formation but at every capital raise.
Belgium
The market with the most developed digital formation route asks a different question from everyone else: where a dispute under the new form would actually be heard.
United Kingdom
The lowest awareness of any market surveyed, and one of the highest upsides on offer: UK scaleups stand to gain the most from a form they have barely been told exists.
Chapters 05 to 10 read each market on its own terms and are not pooled. Chapter titles and order are provisional while the draft is in review.
Request a copy of the report.
Volume 1 is sent to registrants on the day of publication. Volume 2 extends the interview programme through Q3 and Q4 2026; registrants are notified first.