DG Progress

🚀 🇪🇺 Welcome to DG Progress! 🇪🇺 🚀 The European Commission doesn’t yet have a Directorate-General dedicated to Europe’s economic, social, and consumer progress—so we’re filling in. DG Progress is here to help bridge the gap between Europe’s builders and our policymaking bubble. We will shed light on Europe's strengths, advocate for what its innovators need to make the next great leaps, and share ways to get involved. 📬 Subscribe here: dgprogress.eu

🎤 We spoke with Damian Boeselager, Co-Founder and Member of Parliament for Volt Europa 👇 ❓You are one of the strongest supporters of EU-INC. What has captured you personally or politically about this movement? "Why is EU-INC cool? Because it helps investors understand corporate forms in Europe more easily. That’s one of the largest benefits because you know your voting rights and shareholder rights when you invest, especially if you don’t have to travel to that country for that investment to sign in front of a notary". ❓You’ve been touring Europe, meeting founders from Helsinki, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and other European hubs. What lessons are you bringing back to policymakers here in Brussels? "One of the things that I heard most is, “Okay, so when does [EU-INC] work? When can I get it?” When I say, “in three years”, it is because we have one year of negotiations and then two years of implementing a Directive; they have already lost interest. There’s a feeling of ‘you’re not hearing us’". Check out the full interview: dgprogress.eu/p/dg-progress-…

Today, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the official EU Inc proposal. 📝 Press release: ec.europa.eu/commission/pre… 📷 Statement: audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/media/video…\

When we asked MEP Damian Boeselager what he learned from speaking with European founders, he said 👇 "One of the things that I heard most is, “Okay, so when does [EU-INC] work? When can I get it?” When I say, “in three years”, it is because we have one year of negotiations and then two years of implementing a Directive; they have already lost interest. There’s a feeling of ‘you’re not hearing us’." The Regulation the EU proposes is a major win, but it's aiming to be ready by 2028. How can we speed it up? 🎙️ Check out the full interview with Damian, here: lnkd.in/dcE2pqkm

The second edition of our newsletter just dropped!👇 🏗️ Capital is pouring into Europe’s AI ecosystem ⛽ The EU’s AI Act is under fire and under review 🌉 MEP Damian Boeselager speaks with us about why he’s championing EU-INC 🛣️ The 28th Regime arrives… open.substack.com/pub/dgprogress…

We’ve still got a long way to go to make Europe a single market for entrepreneurs and reducing administrative friction, but this is a great first step. Shout out to EU–INC for this incredible grassroots movement that is now a concrete proposal 💪

🔄 fail faster – quick liquidation and insolvency, which are critical to breaking Europe’s risk aversion and boosting investors’ confidence

🇪🇺The leak of the 28th Regime proposal (“EU Inc”!) is MEGA news for European startups and investors 🚀 Across the EU, founders will be able to 🧵

@laraavci_ @andreasklinger

justmovetoeurope[.com], five days in. 8,500 visitors. 26,800 page views. 10 cities live. 67% of traffic is mobile. People are sharing city pages in chats and DMs, passing them around like recommendations. That's the use case I was building for. Most visited cities: Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Munich, Paris. Barcelona, Lisbon, and Warsaw went live Sunday night and are already climbing. 14% of visitors are from the US. didn't do anything to target them. The most clicked guide on every single city page: "Your First 30 Days." People want to know what happens when they actually land. Someone typed /hamburg, /madrid, and /brussels into the URL bar. Those pages don't exist yet -> Noted. The site also got posted to Hacker News. First comment: "Europe is THE place to avoid. Full of regulations, fearful investors, conservative mindset." Familiar take. Some of it is fair. But I'd love to know how many people repeating it have actually tried. The founders I talk to building from Berlin, Amsterdam, or Stockholm aren't waiting for regulations to change. They're shipping anyway.

EU-INC Draft is here! AND IT'S A REGULATION 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 From idea to reality! Big Congrats to all the folks behind @euinc_petition ! But there's still a long long way to go...

Europe has a talent for producing two things at scale: startups and policy. The trick is getting them to move at the same speed. That’s why I’m excited to share (see photo below for proof!) that @Synthesia is partnering with @Allied4Startups to help strengthen Europe’s innovation ecosystem. We build AI video tools used by businesses around the world, but we’re built in Europe and we want Europe to be a place where companies can actually scale without spending their best years translating 27 versions of the same rulebook. Allied For Startups has been doing the unglamorous, high-impact work of connecting policymakers to the realities of building and scaling tech, and we’re glad to join forces. What we’ll focus on is practical: policies that support AI uptake, better public procurement pathways, stronger skills, and less regulatory fragmentation so startups can grow across borders like they’re in, you know, a single market. Europe already has the research, the founders, and the ambition. With this partnership, we're going to try and deliver an operating environment to match all of that.

🎉 Great news for EU-INC: the Commission will propose a *Regulation* next week, not a Directive. A big win for cross-border harmonisation ✅ Work still to be done to ensure this proposal delivers for Europe's startups.

We can't be competitive in the modern economy without true energy independence. This is a great step towards regaining global leadership! 🏭👨‍💻🇪🇺🚀⚛️📈

🇪🇺 More tech workers are now heading to the EU from the US, than vice versa. The European Dream? 😉

Paris-based AMI Labs enjoyed Europe's largest ever first funding round 🚀 Yan LeCun is building post-LLM "world models" – here in Europe! 🇪🇺

It will come as a surprise to NOBODY in European Tech that there are now more Americans coming here, than the other way around. Lovable, Multiverse, Veed and many others have all hired senior US tech execs who have have relocated to Europe. Overall the trend both ways is down, but it's still great to see. cc @TheEconomist