At its plenary session on Thursday 5 March, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) called for greater support for regional innovation ecosystems in its opinion on the “EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy”. It also called for startups and scaleups to be promoted in all regions in order to guarantee long-term competitiveness, territorial cohesion and technological sovereignty for Europe.
Presented in July 2025 by the European Commission (see EUROPE 13672/3), this strategy was the subject of ministerial conclusions in September (see EUROPE 13720/13). “Too many European startups never scale – not because they lack ideas, but because their local ecosystems lack skills, capital, and connections”, lamented Jozef Viskupič (Renew Europe, Slovakian), rapporteur and Chairman of the Trnava self-governing Region. “We [are calling] for a place-based Startup and Scaleup Strategy that strengthens regional ecosystems and gives entrepreneurs in every region a fair chance to grow”.
The CoR warned that persistent regional inequalities in access to finance, talent, infrastructure and networks could widen the innovation gap between EU regions and undermine the EU’s long-term cohesion and competitiveness. He also called for long-term public investment, simpler rules and greater support for rural and peripheral regions.
Read the opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/l1e (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)