Bold EU strategy aims to remove startup bottlenecks and boost Europe’s innovation lifecycle

Today, the European Commission adopted the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy.

The strategy aligns with the broader ‘Choose Europe' initiative, launched by President von der Leyen.

It drives forward calls for reforms by Mario Draghi, Enrico Letta, von der Leyen, EU Inc, and Not Optional to address innovation and competitiveness in Europe.

The strategy aims to resolve why many startups still struggle to take ideas from lab to market or grow at scale within the EU by supporting startups through their lifecycle. 

I spoke to Bart Becks, serial innovator, entrepreneur, investor, and Board Member at the European Innovation Council (EIC) to get an inside take on the strategy.

According to Becks, some areas still need national adoption, like the 28th regime, which will need collaboration with all member states. 

“But many of the measures can be implemented directly by the Commission and should roll out over the next 12–18 months.”

As with any documentation of this nature, there’s a lot to digest, so I’ve aimed to pull out some of the most critical activities launched under the strategy.

Fostering an innovation-friendly environment 

• European 28th regime (Q1 2026) – a shout out to the tireless lobbying of EU Inc and all of the EU startup ecosystem for driving this through. 

•  The European Business Wallet will enable seamless digital interactions with public administrations across the Union through a unified digital identity for all economic operators.  (Q4 2025)

• The European Innovation Act will further support innovation by promoting regulatory sandboxes.

Driving better financing

• The Savings and Investments Union initiative will be key to unlocking more financing and investment opportunities in the EU.

• Expanding and simplifying the European Innovation Council.

According to Becks, the strategy acknowledges that the EIC functions quite well. It supports the whole journey: from research to transition to scaling. 

“Especially in scaling, we’ve done over 200 direct investments in the last three years. Extending the EIC’s role, and the fact it’s governed by entrepreneurs and investors rather than politicians, is a good thing. It brings real-world relevance.”

• A voluntary European Innovation Investment Pact to mobilise large institutional investors to invest in EU funds, venture capital funds, and unlisted scaleups.

Becks notes the importance of patients in deeptech investment and funding: 

“Many funds run for 8 to 10 years, which is too short. Deep tech needs patient capital — we’re talking 15 to 17 years sometimes. So it’s about long-term investment."

• Deployment of a Scaleup Europe Fund to help bridge the financing gap of deep tech scale-up companies.
• Supporting market uptake and expansion.
• A Lab to Unicorn initiative (2026), which includes the European Startup and Scaleup Hubs to help connect university ecosystems across the EU. This includes a blueprint for licensing, royalty, revenue-sharing and equity participation for academic institutions and their inventors when commercialising IP and creating spinoffs.

Becks contends: 

“Europe has strong research, comparable to the US and China. But we don’t create enough startups from that research. We’re rich in patents and publications, but low in company creation. 

That’s why I’m hopeful about the “Lab to Unicorn” initiative. The name says it: take things out of the lab and turn them into startups.”

• The Blue Carpet initiative (2025-2026) focuses on entrepreneurial education, tax-related aspects of employee stock options, and cross-border employment. The Commission will also encourage Member States to implement fast-track schemes for non-EU founders.

• A Charter of Access for industrial users to simplify and harmonise diverging access and contractual conditions for startups and scaleups to technology and research infrastructures.

From paper to progress

Moving forward, Becks concedes that the next challenge is implementation and feedback. 

The European Commission will monitor the strategy's progress through key performance indicators, measuring the increase in the number of startups, scaleups, centaurs (valuation over €100 million) and unicorns in the EU, and how these compare with the EU’s global competitors. 

Reporting on its implementation will be done by the end of 2027.

“Not all of the initiatives will work. Like in a startup, you need to test, iterate, and adapt. We need product-market fit for regulation too.”

Upon my questioning of the European Commission’s agility, he asserts that “mixing policymakers with people from the field helps spot problems early. 

“I’ve seen a real shift. In Brussels, this Strategy is on everyone’s radar now. Everyone agrees Draghi was right. We have a Commissioner focused on startups — many countries don’t even have a minister for startups.”

Becks believes that the strategy also creates an opportunity to activate underrepresented regions in Europe. 

“Right now, ecosystems are concentrated in France, Germany, the UK, and Scandinavia. Others can learn from them. 

Estonia is a great example: 1.5 million people, 10 unicorns — and more coming. They had to innovate. Poland is another one expanding quickly.”

The EIC also supports increasing the number of women-led startups, its latest data shows 30 per cent per cent of EIC-supported startups are women-led. It’s a great start."

Ekaterina Zaharieva, Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, asserts that with the five concrete actions, “we are removing the barriers that hold our entrepreneurs back. Europe is ready to scale up.”

The strategy also comes at a critical time as Europe seeks to divest itself from US big tech. 

Becks shared that he attended a conference last month, where  the CEOs of the largest Belgian banks said 70 per cent of their operations run on American software. 

“Their goal is to drop that to 40 per cent.”

 It shows how seriously people are taking the sovereignty issue. While stressing the importance of not severing trade relations with the US — the US is still the number one place to scale for most startups — Becks asserts that “it doesn’t have to be the only place true innovation happens across socially critical tech.”

As part of the news release, Stéphane Séjourné, Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, shared: 

“We cut red tape, we facilitate their access to financing, we improve their ability to do business across our Single Market.

In other words, we want to put Europe right in the middle of the global innovation map, for companies and investors. Europe can lead on its own terms and be the place where innovation thrives.”