Think small, act big – why Europe needs a 28th regime for business

Nearly 30 years after the single market’s formal completion, Europe still feels more like a patchwork of 27 business environments than one large integrated economy. Customs barriers are gone and the euro is well established, but companies trying to grow across borders – especially SMEs and scale-ups – now face deeper obstacles: company law, tax rules, insolvency frameworks, labour regulations and sometimes burdensome administrative practices.

The core message is simple: if the EU wants more cross-border firms, productive investment and high-quality jobs, it needs a radically simpler legal route for doing business across the Union – without forcing Member States to abandon their own systems. The 28th regime is that alternative. 

Apostolos Thomadakis is Research Fellow and Head of the Financial Markets and Institutions Unit at CEPS, and Head of Research at ECMI. This commentary is based on the ‘Establishing the 28th regime in Europe: A unified legal framework to support growth and business’ study, carried out by CEPS and Ecorys for the European Economic and Social Committee. An earlier French version of this commentary was published in the December 2025 issue of Revue Banque.