POSITION | RESEARCH & INNOVATION | START-UPS
Recommendations on the Start-up and Scale-up Strategy
March 14, 2025 General Remarks ▪
BDI welcomes the initiative of Commissioner Zaharieva to develop an EU start-up and scaleup strategy that improves the framework conditions for start-ups and scale-ups in Europe, as outlined in her mission letter. The strategy must interact closely with the European Innovation Act, whereby there should be no additional bureaucratic burden. Additionally, BDI supports Ms Zaharieva’s intends to include a gender dimension, deploying all available instruments to support women innovators. That notwithstanding, only a close coordination and cooperation with the services of Commissioner Sejourné with regard to SME and Mid-Caps will realize a full potential.
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BDI welcomes the initiative to propose a European start-up and scale-up strategy. The BDI welcomes the initiative to harmonize existing regulations and strengthen venture capital for start-ups and scale-ups. It is important that no new bureaucratic processes are created where costs and benefits are not in an acceptable relationship with each other. A European Innovation Act and European Research Area Act must be closely interlinked with the start-up and scale-up strategy.
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Start-ups and scale-ups are important players in the European ecosystem, with the potential to deliver disruptive innovations that are crucial for technological sovereignty. Especially tech start-ups provide new impetus for the innovation ecosystem. However, they are facing many hurdles on the way to introducing these innovations, most of which are correctly underlined in the call for evidence. These hurdles, as outlined in this document, should be addressed by the EU start-up and scale-up strategy. When developing the strategy, it is important to consider start-ups and scale-ups as part of the European innovation ecosystem and to account for the role of other actors (including SME, mid-caps and corporates) in sustaining and developing innovations introduced by start-ups.
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Europe's fragmented Single Market imposes a distinct competitive disadvantage on start-ups, obstructing their ability to scale by rapidly deploying transformative technologies such as AI to the market. Start-ups and scale-ups particularly suffer due to disproportionate regulatory compliance costs, complicated national tax frameworks, and stringent size-dependent regulations.
Federation of German Industries (BDI) | www.bdi.eu German Lobbyregister Number R000534 | EU Transparency Register: 1771817758-48 Lukas Martin (l.martin@bdi.eu) | Dr. Mariia Shkolnykova (m.shkolnykova@bdi.eu)