Dear President von der Leyen,

Dear Commissioner Breton,

Dear Commissioner Gabriel

We, the undersigned startup organisations, welcome the increased focus on startup policies, including the Startup Nations Standard (SNS) with the European Startup Nations Alliance (ESNA), ScaleUp Europe, Global Powerhouses and the Unicorns Group. These underline the political will to fuel the innovative digital economy of the future. We believe that in order to achieve their full potential, greater coordination and synchronisation will be needed between them in the months ahead. 

Startups are key for Europe in achieving the ambitious targets of its green and digital transition. We were therefore excited and supportive when initiatives to kickstart our ecosystems and remove regulatory bottlenecks were presented.

At the same time, startups and startup organisations inherently have less resources at their disposal than larger, more established players. We would therefore welcome a coordinated approach where similar initiatives which share the same goal are bundled together in order to gain efficiencies and avoid duplication. 

The fact that many recent startup ecosystem initiatives identify and recommend similar improvements (for example, stock options or startup visas) suggests that there is a comprehensive understanding of the problems entrepreneurs in the EU face. What is needed now is effective implementation of these initiatives, ideally in a coordinated fashion. 

Startups are ready and willing to play their part in identifying and improving the regulatory landscape for their peers. The next step on this path is a synchronisation and comprehensive implementation of the measures on the table. Our organisations are ready to help and look forward to seeing these proposals coming to fruition.

Sincerely,

Signatories (in alphabetical order): 

Agustin Baeza, Spanish Startups Association

Alisson Avila, Beta-i / Portugal Tech League

Benedikt Blomeyer, Allied for Startups

Calin Sipos, Cluj Startups

Csongor Bias, Startup Hungary

Gianmarco Carnovale, Roma Startup

Ivan Vasilev, BESCO – The Bulgarian Startup Association

Julia Fenart, France Digitale

Jouni Lounasmaa, Startup Foundation (Finland)

Markus Raunig, AustrianStartups

Martina Fitzgerald, Scale Ireland

Michal Kardos, SAPIE – Slovak Alliance for Innovation Economy

Mircea Vadan, FreshBlood HealthTech

Peter Kofler, Danish Entrepreneurs 

Simon Schaefer, Factory.com

You can find the PDF here.