EU Seeks to Ease Burden on Business in Investment Push

Welcome to the Brussels Edition. I’m Suzanne Lynch, Bloomberg’s Brussels bureau chief, bringing you the latest from the EU each weekday. Make sure you’re signed up.

The European Union’s competitiveness issues are returning to the forefront this week as the bloc’s leaders gather for a summit in Brussels tomorrow. While the war in Iran and Hungary’s continuing block on a €90 billion loan for Ukraine are likely to feature heavily in discussions, competitiveness — and particularly rising energy costs — are also on the agenda.

Ahead of tomorrow’s summit, the European Commission unveiled its proposal to allow firms to incorporate under a single EU-wide regime and operate across the 27-member bloc. The proposal, dubbed EU Inc., “will make it drastically easier to start and to grow a business in Europe,” commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said this lunchtime as she announced the package. “Any entrepreneur will be able to create a company within 48 hours, from anywhere in the European Union, and fully online,” she added.