The Commission will propose a planned EU-wide company entity – known as the 28th regime – through a directive, a leaked work programme for 2026 suggests.
The draft document refers to the proposal using a legal basis that would require a directive, specifically articles 50 and 114 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
This outcome would follow the approach proposed by MEP René Repasi, who is drafting a Parliament own-initiative report on the topic and has said he favours a directive.
But the leak is already outraging startup activists, who argue that a regulation is the only true path for reforming rules that create barriers to growing European startups.
Earlier this month, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it would present “one single and simple set of rules” for the 28th regime.
“If the Commission turns the 28th Regime into a directive, it kills the idea before it’s born,” Serena Borbotti-Frison, director general of startup lobby group Allied for Startups, told Euractiv.
“It seems the EU’s leadership has been pretending to listen to entrepreneurs while quietly deciding to ignore them,” she went on, adding: “Startups don’t need another legal maze, they need one European framework to scale.”
Repasi, on the other hand, welcomed the step – telling Euractiv that the Commission seems to have arrived at the same legal and political conclusions as he did.
“We should now work together to create an ambitious 28th regime with uniform rules throughout Europe by means of a fully harmonised directive,” he added.
The reason most groups in Parliament begrudgingly support the directive route is that a regulation would require all 27 EU countries to unanimously agree in Council.
The Commission did not close down any route in its consultation on the project, which mentioned both options. But the leak suggests a path has been picked – unless there’s a change of heart inside the Berlaymont before the 2026 work programme is officially presented next Tuesday.
A potential third option would be for the reform project to be realised through a package of laws, which Repasi has also suggested.
The Commission will present a 28th regime proposal in the first quarter of the coming year, per the leaked work programme.
The EU’s executive was contacted but declined to confirm whether the 28th regime will be a directive ahead of officially presenting the proposal.
(nl)