European start-ups and scale-ups

Key points

The EESC:

• emphasises that the success of start-ups and scale-ups depends on competitive access to resources and product markets, and on a supportive regulatory and fiscal environment for innovation, investment and trade;
• underlines the need for additional efforts to promote entrepreneurship and business development more broadly, including the incorporation of a scaling-up perspective in all business-related policy and regulatory initiatives;
• stresses the importance of the better regulation principle, guided by thorough impact assessments that cover entire value chains and all stages of the legislative process, and it calls for proper implementation and follow-up of an innovation stress test and a competitiveness check;
• stresses that scale-ups’ financial needs require immediate solutions across the entire investment chain, without waiting for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF);
• calls for an evaluation of how the tax conditions can be improved for start-ups and scale-ups, including a study of best practices in Member States and a comparative analysis of the treatment of start-up equity in the US and other competing economies;
• considers it vital for start-ups to have access to high-level research and technology infrastructure, such as supercomputers and AI factories, and receive tailored support to commercialise their products and services;
• calls for phased development of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to enable more comprehensive and outcome-oriented monitoring of start-up and scale-up activities and more specific target-setting.

For more information, please contact INT secretariat