European start-ups and scale-ups

Background

Requested by the Danish Presidency, this exploratory opinion examines what it takes to build and keep high‑growth firms in Europe.

A start‑up is a young, innovative company designed for rapid, scalable growth. A scale‑up is a start‑up that has reached product–market fit and is sustaining fast expansion, for example through double‑digit annual growth over several years.

European start-ups and scale-ups have strong capabilities in areas such as fintech, AI and sustainability tech, yet young firms still face fragmented single‑market rules, gaps in access to finance along the investment chain, talent shortages and uneven access to research, digital and industrial infrastructure.

To reduce fragmentation, the Commission has explored an optional '28th regime': a single EU‑wide framework that companies may opt into for specific matters ─ such as company formation, cross‑border operation, reporting or sandbox conditions ─ without replacing national systems. The goal is a one‑stop set of rules that lowers compliance costs and speeds scaling across Member States.

Against this backdrop, faster removal of regulatory barriers, deeper capital and talent pools, and smoother market uptake are pivotal if Europe is to help start‑ups become scale‑ups, and scale‑ups stay and grow in the Single Market.

Key points:

In the opinion, the EESC:

• 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; it calls for proper implementation and follow-up of an innovation stress test and a competitiveness check;
• calls for a thorough review to identify and remove both legislative and non-legislative obstacles that hinder entrepreneurs from seizing a second chance after business failure.

Read the opinion.

Additional information

Section: Single Market, Production and Consumption

Opinion number: INT/1089

Opinion type: Exploratory opinion

Rapporteur: Mira-Maria DANISMAN

Reference: Referral from the Danish Presidency of the Council, 7/2/2025

Date of adoption by section: 2/9/2025

Result of the vote: 80 in favour/1 against/0 abstention.

Date of adoption in plenary: 18/9/2025

Result of the vote: 96 in favour/0 against/1 abstention

Contacts:

Press officer: Laura Lui

Tel.: +32 2 546 9189

Email: laurairena.lui@eesc.europa.eu

Administrator: Marco Manfroni

Tel.: +32 546 9140

Email: marco.manfroni@eesc.europa.eu