🇪🇺 Wear eu/acc: euacc.com/shop

🇪🇺 eu/acc

A few weeks ago Mario Draghi asked my recommendations for his report that came out today about European competitiveness

I had a call with him and summarized my problems with doing business in the EU

I wrote this which is included in the report presented to the European Union today:

1. Minimum revenue cut offs for current and new regulation
Exempt small businesses with annual revenues below €10 million from complex regulations like VATMOSS, GDPR, the EU AI Act, and certain labor laws. This approach encourages innovation and growth by allowing startups to focus on product development and market validation without the heavy burden of regulatory compliance. Once these businesses surpass €10 million, they will have the resources to comply with regulations, ensuring that growth is not stifled.

2. Simplify starting a pan-EU business with an EU-wide Incorporation (Inc.) business form
Currently, starting and operating a business across the EU is complex due to 27 member states, each with its own company registration requirements. To streamline this process and make it easier for entrepreneurs to operate across Europe, there should be a single, standardized business entity that applies uniformly across all EU countries. I call this the European Inc.

3. Start an EU business fully online, no physical offices, notaries, lawyers etc
To continue, right now starting a business in most EU member states it’s complicated, very time and resource intensive, and often involves lawyers and notaries. Instead, it should be as simple as going online to a centralized EU website, where entrepreneurs can register their business and details in just a few clicks. The entire process should be streamlined and efficient, allowing businesses to start operating immediately.

The EU government taxes and bookkeeping of this business should also be fully online in an EU portal/dashboard.

4. 0% corporate tax for first 3 years of any new business
Countries like Singapore have successfully attracted new businesses from around the world by giving them a massive tax discount during the first 3 years of business. Because they know that’s the most difficult time of a business: figuring out what product it makes and if there’s a market for it. That takes pressure off startups and business founders that they can focus on creating a great product and innovating.

5. Change tax on stock options: don't tax when a stock option is exercised, but tax it when the stock is sold
The current tax policy in the EU taxes stock options at the time they are exercised, creating a significant financial burden on employees who have not yet realized any tangible financial gain. This approach stifles innovation, discourages entrepreneurship, and places the EU at a competitive disadvantage compared to other regions like the United States.

I propose a simple change: Tax stock options when the stock is sold, not when the option is exercised.

6. Don’t see tech or AI as an enemy, but as a burgeoning and essential industry
The most popular companies in tech are focused on AI right now for a reason. It’s the next frontier of computing. The European Union seems to consider AI the enemy. Any technology can be used for good or bad. By regulating it even before Europe has made much contributions (Europe has almost no tech companies leading in AI), it has stifled any potential innovation in AI from the start.

Apart from the regulation itself, the optics of it make the EU look bad on a global scale. Why would tech founders move to Europe to start a business if the EU is actively positioning itself as Anti-AI?

AI has gigantic potential to be used for good: think of the medical field for diagnosis of diseases, generally in programming (it helps programmers to create software faster/better), etc.

https://x.com/levelsio/status/1833126426142179653

🇪🇺 eu/acc

Today, Thierry Breton, the primary opponent of technological progress in the European Union resigned

He was responsible for:
- making technology companies Europe's #1 enemy, making many companies leave for the US
- the EU AI Act which made it impossible to build an AI startup in Europe
- the Digital Services Act which was used to stifle free speech in Europe (famously on here)

From his resignation letter it looks like he was fired

I think what that shows is that all the attention everyone is bringing on here on how Europe was going the wrong way is working

So please keep posting on here and telling your friends about the problems of Europe and where you feel Europe should be going instead

Because the EU does actually listen to us to steer its future, not immediately, but eventually

https://x.com/levelsio/status/1835607760425087145

Even though he's forever gone, echoes of Thierry Breton are still everywhere when you're in Europe

Because of him you literally can't find Google Maps anymore on Google

There's not even a heading for Maps anymore!

Only way to get there is type maps dot google dot com

https://x.com/levelsio/status/1836494785382879462

Here's @balajis and my fireside talk from The Network State conference

He wore my 🇪🇺 eu/acc hat and we discussed Europe's brain drain

https://x.com/levelsio/status/1838118136849313990

@EmmanuelMacron is the only European leader who gets the seriousness of the situation right now:

The EU has only 2 or 3 years to stave off total US and China dominance

Washington and Beijing are leaving the European Union lagging behind, French President Emmanuel Macron said in pessimistic remarks.

“Our former model is over. We are overregulating and underinvesting. In the two to three years to come, if we follow our classical agenda, we will be out of the market,” he warned during a panel discussion at the Berlin Global Dialogue meeting on Wednesday.

“The EU could die, we are on a verge of a very important moment,” he added.

The French president argued that Europe is lagging behind the Unites States and China on key files such as climate change, AI, defense and security.

Former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi raised a similar warning in a report published in September, saying that the EU faces an "existential challenge" unless it radically transforms its economy to enhance its competitiveness.

Macron said he fully supports Draghi's conclusions and that Europe should rush to implement them. "I think this is quite true, we are at risk," he said.

“They invest much more, they are much more in advance,” he said, adding that looking at gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in the past three decades the U.S. delivered an increase of 60 percent, Europe only delivered 30 percent.

“And it's not sustainable with the social model that we have,” he added.

https://fxtwitter.com/levelsio/status/1842956658428752230

🇪🇺 Thanks EU regulators

https://legiscope.com/blog/hidden-productivity-drain-cookie-banners.html

Realistically I feel how Elon does it is smartest:

Stay out of politics directly but align with the right politicians and support them to get elected then help them as kind of a consultant

I'll happily support and advice European politicians if they want me to

I posted my key goals before which is crowdsourced based on what all of you on X told me how to save Europe and that I recommended to Mario Draghi:

1. Reduce regulatory burden for European startups
Our vision is focused on reducing regulatory burdens for small businesses, streamlining the process of starting and growing companies, and encouraging innovation. By exempting businesses with annual revenues below €10 million from complex regulations like VATMOSS, GDPR, and the EU AI Act, we empower entrepreneurs to focus on creating great products and reaching market success without being weighed down by compliance.

2. European Inc: a single pan-European business entity
We also propose the creation of a single, EU-wide business entity—European Inc.—that eliminates the complexity of dealing with 27 different company registration requirements. Starting a business should be as easy as clicking a button online, without needing physical offices, notaries, or lawyers.

3. Tax discount during startup phase
For new businesses, we advocate for 0% corporate tax for the first 3 years, allowing startups to focus on innovation without the pressure of financial strain.

4. Tax stock options when sold, not when exercised
We propose changing the tax policy on stock options to tax them only when sold, not when exercised, so that Europe can compete globally in attracting top talent and entrepreneurs.

5. Embrace AI and technology, don't fight it
We see tech and AI not as enemies but as crucial for the future of Europe. While Europe currently lags behind, we believe we can turn the tide by fostering an environment that encourages innovation rather than stifling it with premature regulation. AI can revolutionize industries like healthcare, education, manufacturing, agriculture, energy and of course software, and Europe needs to be at the forefront of this change.

6. Teach AI and tech in schools
Lastly, to ensure the long-term prosperity of the European Union, we must teach tech, coding, and AI in all schools and universities. By equipping the next generation with these skills, Europe can secure its place as a global leader in innovation.

https://x.com/levelsio/status/1866569347784687748

New site is live euacc.com

Share and make your local, national and EU politicians see it

https://x.com/levelsio/status/1866825138554937552

Re: https://x.com/adriaanmol/status/1867873797006643260

This comes down to Europe actually being ruled by rich nepotist families who own the big private corporations here

They have access to the government, well in fact, they're pretty much infilitrated into the government

Startups don't

This isn't some crazy conspiracy theory

If follow the people behind the anti-tech, anti-AI and pro-censorship regulation it's all people like Thierry Breton who spent his whole life in the corporatist cliques of France

The European Commission especially is an unelected clique of corporatist cronies with no interest for startups, in fact looking at the regulation they pass they are fully AGAINST startups

Because startups are a threat to the existing incumbent corporations that control Europe

The silver lining of Europe absolutely failing at tech due to all its overregulation is that these people will be forced out because it will run out of money, only get poorer, and Europeans won't accept this state for much longer

I for sure don't

https://x.com/levelsio/status/1868010368980631783

Official eu/acc account on 𝕏 now:

https://x.com/euaccofficial

BREAKING: Europe’s GDPR privacy law is headed for red tape bonfire within ‘weeks’

Europe's most famous technology law, the GDPR, is next on the hit list as the European Union pushes ahead with its regulatory killing spree to slash laws it reckons are weighing down its businesses.

The European Commission plans to present a proposal to cut back the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR for short, in the next couple of weeks. Slashing regulation is a key focus for Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen as an attempt to make businesses in Europe more competitive with rivals in the United States, China and elsewhere.

https://fxtwitter.com/euaccofficial/status/1909225030354940326