MNI BRIEF: EC Plan To Boost High-Tech Startup Sectors

The European Commission has launched its new "Scaleup and Startup" strategy to turn Europe into a global powerhouse for the launch and development of global technology-driven companies in the EU, aiming to prevent the bloc falling even further behind the US and China in cutting-edge sectors, like AI, quantum computing and advanced microchips.   

The strategy is one main plank of the EU efforts to implement the Draghi and Letta recommendations for boosting European competitiveness by strengthening the Single Market, simplifying business regulation in areas like insolvency and labour law and catalysing a European venture capital market to bring technology start-ups more quickly to market via a "lab to unicorn" initiative. 

Proposals also include measures to ease access to funding by the creation a bigger and more integrated venture capital market and to encourage the greater involvement of EU institutional investors in financing startups in key high-tech sectors.