About

Startups and scaleups are key to Europe's future economy and society. This was true before and during the Covid19 crisis and will, even more, be so in the post-Covid19 era. These entities already played a pivotal role in the recovering of past crisis, and are capable to do so in an ongoing one. However, European startup founders are facing considerable challenges linked directly to the COVID-19 crisis, from declining sales to access to funding in 2020 (in 20 European Union Member States the funding raised by startups in 2020 was lower than in 2019).
To address this, through an open and inclusive process, the European Commission together with Member States and stakeholders have identified some practices that are hallmarks of a growth-friendly environment — the Startup Nations Standard. Such an environment is central to the EU’s transition to a sustainable, resilient, open, and digital economy, and unleashing the tremendous innovation and growth potential of its startups.
Each of these best practices has already been successfully implemented in at least some of our Member States. The immediate task ahead is to ensure best practices — ‘EU-made’ and third country — are shared across all Member States. Greater awareness and understanding of such best practices can then be a springboard to their uptake and implementation in all EU countries.
It is important to note that within the ever-changing world we live in, new, more innovative best practices may appear, at which point a revision of the standards may be necessary.