EU Inc: Is the EU’s flagship start-up plan really dying over workers’ rights?

Proposed by the Commission on 18 March, EU Inc. would be an optional company form alongside the 27 national systems, with digital registration within 48 hours, a cost of up to €100, and no minimum share capital. Two Legal Affairs Committee votes were cancelled in October because political groups could not agree on workers’ rights. Companies would follow the employee-participation rules of their chosen country of registration. Unions and centre-left MEPs fear firms could choose weaker board-level protections. Business-friendly lawmakers say applying multiple national systems would complicate the plan. The EU-INC campaign, backed by more than 26,000 supporters and figures linked to Stripe, Mistral AI, Klarna and Wise, says the opposite problem is real. It points to the deletion of the central EU register from the Council text and limits on harmonised stock options. Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné has said the regime cannot work without stock-option harmonisation. A new committee vote is pencilled in for 5 November, and a first plenary vote for 12 November. Both dates are provisional. The project is not dead, but the fight is now over how much of it survives.