🇪🇺 eu/acc AMA: How can we save Europe?
👋 Hi Product Hunters!
I'm here today not to launch a product, but in a way for something much more interesting: to talk about eu/acc 😊
For the last decade, I was digital nomading and living in different places all around the world. While the places where I lived abroad, like Asia and America, were getting more ambitious and modern every time I visited them, Europe, and especially Western Europe, started to feel stagnant to me.
Of course, that was one of the reasons why I left Europe in the first place. When I said I wanted to be an entrepreneur after graduating university, I was laughed at even by my university classmates who studied business! It was "safer" to get a job for a big corporation and get experience first. Then you could start a business later.
And when I finally had my own internet business that was making thousands per month, I remember telling people in Amsterdam, and they'd ask me "when are you going to get a real job?".
This was a stark difference from when I was abroad and told people what I did. People were excited, supportive and wanted to learn to do the same thing.
Every year that I came back to Europe the culture felt more stagnant, more pessimistic, and more normie.
Of course there was great things about Europe for me pulling me back: my parents and brothers live here, and when I ended up in Portugal during COVID, I loved the nature, the clean air and the laid-back coastal surf village life and ended up moving here.
And that brought me to an interesting point: seeing where the rest of the world was going, as a European, while seeing Europe slowly getting worse. It became harder and harder to build a startup here. And we started seeing this in losing any lead we had in technology in the last decade. The big tech and AI companies are now all in the US and China, there's very few left in Europe:
The insane regulation that the EU brought upon everyone I think directly caused this:
VATMOSS
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Digital Services Act (DSA)
Digital Markets Act (DMA)
ePrivacy Regulation
The AI Act
...and many more
Which all had good intentions, but made it very difficult to comply as a small or medium business owner. Sure if you're a billion dollar corporation, you can hire bookkeepers and lawyers to comply. But if you're a one-man or small startup?
Last year around April, the data finally started showing what I felt for over decade, Europe was in fact struggling and for the reasons that I felt in my gut:
https://x.com/levelsio/status/1784943280171467260
I felt we had to at least try do something to change the mindset in Europe. I started eu/acc, European Accelerationsim as an offshoot of e/acc, Effective Accelerationsim, a similar movement by Beff Jezos in the United States. Out with the pessimism about the future, and in with optimism about technology and the future. And in particular in eu/acc's case: draw attention to the problems of Europe and propose practical ways to fix them.
eu/acc is a movement to deregulate and save Europe
Thousands of people have now crowdsourced tens of thousands of ideas of which the most important ones have now become part of the official eu/acc manifesto on euacc.com
And it hasn't just stopped there: eu/acc's ideas are part of Mario Draghi's European Competitiveness report which was presented to the European Commission in September 2024 and implemented in January 2025 by Ursula von der Leyen as the European Competitiveness Compass.
Of course that's just reports. We need actual action and laws changed to make Europe a great place for people and business again. And to guarantee its economic future.
One of the most important components is not regulation, but deregulation: remove regulation that makes it impossible for tech entrepreneurs, startups and companies in Europe to do business and compete with the rest of the world.
Because Europeans are highly skilled, highly educated, they have great ideas, and many are actually ambitious. They're just stifled by regulation and as a consequence a culture that has slowly become so risk-averse that it's been starting to self-sabotage its future.
Europe can be great, so let's make it that again! 😊
Today I'd love to answer your questions, and I'd even more love to hear YOUR ideas on how to save Europe!
-A proud 🇪🇺 European
Follow @euaccofficial to get updates
How do you plan to win the hearts and minds of the people? As much as I love Europe, the core of the population is very left-leaning anti-sucess anti-entrepreneurship, us against them mentaility, we are total outliers.
I sucessfully exited my startup and moved to Asia and now considering US, I feel much more welcomed when I talk about my ambitions. We need success stories that will inspire new generations.
@erik_n True. A big issue. I'm starting to slowly see European friends around me change their tone. The reaction is very different than 5 years ago. They realize Europe has a problem and they do see it should be fixed or Europe does not have a future anymore.
I feel the same in US and Asia! I hope in a few years the same in Europe again!
The biggest hurdle for eu/acc seems to be convincing 27 nations to adopt similar changes in corp tax, immigration, tax treatments, business incorporation, etc. Do you need unilateral support from all member states? Or is there way the commission can "overrule" these changes like the federal gov. can do in the US without full buy-in from all nations?
@steveb Yep, exactly. So that's why the interesting part is creating a pan-European company type that has its own pro-business environment in the so-called "28th regime".
Your company can physically operate out of any of the 27 EU countries, but regulation wise be only part of that one.
You'd pay tax in the "28th state". Any lawsuits would happen there too and you'd have dedicated courts for that, which physically can be anywhere in Europe.
How do you think we can create a system (incentive structure) where MEP's and EU bureaucrats work on reducing regulation (where their livelihood depends on making more of it to justify their jobs)?
@dom_scholz Great question and a very difficult problem. I think one start is disbanding the European Commission, which is the source of most of the crazy regulation like the AI Act.
We should replace it with a fully democratically elected government body that shapes laws that Europeans actually want.
That'd avoid people like Thierry Breton (who was not democratically elected) show up and destroy Europe's future with regulation again.
@charlie_greenman I'm very in favor of a federal union of Europe.
The problem now:
- the political left in Europe is pro-EU and anti-business, and
- the political right in Europe is anti-EU and pro-business
There's no real political group in Europe that is both pro-EU and pro-business, like eu/acc
To compete with the rest of the world we need a healthy business climate to build startups and innovate, which helps Europe's competitiveness and economy. But we also need to unify more I think.
The EU and especially the European Commission with its overregulation and pettiness did more in the last decade to make people opposed to a federal union than to see the benefits of it. But it has benefits if it's executed properly, see the United States.
@charlie_greenman @levelsio but isn't the EU the opposite of a federation? Like that's the very point of the EU, it's a confederation of states, and the nation states don't have to give up their valued statehood.
My understanding is your either pro federation or pro the EU, and you can only have one.
@charlie_greenman @levelsio There's no real political group in Europe that is both pro-EU and pro-business, like eu/accI'm not sure why you'd disregard ALDE, the largest and most impactful party in your country belongs to it.
I'm curious if you think creating something like a "cultural exchange" program but for entrepreneurs and businesses to get a look at the other side. For Europe it's a chance for maybe businesses and decision makers to get a feel for what's possible under certain regulations and environments and for Silicon Valley could show how Europe, while difficult, has opportunity if the environment was changed a bit.
I feel like an outside push might help expedite things but curious what you think.
@gabe I think these kinds of ideas are nice but actually the problem in Europe.
Europe, the EU and European countries have invested billions in startup meetups, conferences, travels, etc. and it all led to nothing really.
What startups need to flourish is a regulatory environment where it's easy to start and operate a business. Right now it's extremely expensive in time and money to comply with all the EU and European countries regulations. Most European founders have horror stories from their countries.
If you deregulate and make it a great place to start and run a business, these cultural exchanges will happen automatically as a result of lots of startup activity!
@gabe @levelsio I remember tons of people became experts in filling in Horizon2020 grant application papers in our coworking space in Berlin a decade ago. Just machines following a formula to get free money with rarely anything to show out the back of it. Throwing good money after bad in a poor business environment. These initiatives need EU Inc first and then funding should be funnelled through an EU sovereign wealth fund acting as LP for European VC funds.
I am going to throw some comments from my perspective - you may not like them, but I truly hope that something useful comes out of them.
For this movement to succeed, it needs to recognize from the beginning that most of Europeans (me included) do not want to become Americans (neither Asians) under any circumstances. If the solution to Europe at the end is going to be the American hustle 'work-till-you-drop' culture or the Chinese 9-9-6 workweek, I'll rather be poor (or poorer in average) but still have WLF.
Regulation is neither good or bad. A bad regulation is bad, and a good regulation is good. For people and for business. Remove regulation for the sake of removing regulation is not the best idea. Also is important to identify if the problem with one regulation is the core, or is the red tape built around that is creating the problem. For example, you mention the GDPR regulation as something as something to get rid of. Most Europeans (me included) wants the GDPR to exist - I want FULL control over my data and business should take no precedence over my data. If there are issues with the implementation of the GDPR (too much paperwork, for example), then is important to flag that issues and not the regulation itself. Otherwise you will gain no support.
Having ambition is good, and should be, at least, respected; and ideally celebrated - but the opposite applies. Wanting a 35h work week in a menial job should be also, at least, respected. I feel like some of the comments treats those who do not want to create a startup as 'second class' (i.e. using the word 'normies'). It is awesome to want to create a startup and to become rich, but you will gain no support if you treat those who do not want to create one as peasants.
Tech is nice - but it is not the only business in the world. By focusing only on tech, you risk losing lots of support from other people who is not interested in tech. Red tape affects everyone - from an AI startup to a plumber. Why focus on the specifics when you can gain support from everyone? For example, a single European capital market will benefit everyone - from your tech startups to chemical companies, pharma (big or small), the service sector (hotels, airlines, train operators) and basically any sector. Europe has the capital (more than the US, actually), but not the market. Why not fixing the whole instead of just one sector? I see that some of those ideas are on the website (European Inc, tax optimization for stocks, bankruptcy laws) but have not been promoted here - in my honest opinion, those kind of proposals should be the absolutely primary focus, as they can gather support from basically everyone.
I'm gonna add a bunch of points too:
“Make skilled immigration easier, unskilled harder”
Life as an immigrant is already difficult, and Europe isn’t exactly pro-immigration to begin with. Of course, we can’t accept everyone, but offering opportunities to those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, whether due to poverty, war, or other hardships, should be a fundamental principle of Europe.
“Champion free speech, don’t censor it”
Not sure what you’re referring to, but allowing the spread of disinformation isn’t the same as supporting free speech.
“Make English the primary language of the European Union”
I disagree. This assumes Europe is a single entity where borders are arbitrary, but in reality, it consists of distinct countries, each with its own language and culture. English is already widely spoken despite not being a native language for any EU member. Throughout history, the lingua franca has changed, and it likely will again. That doesn’t mean we should disregard the importance of preserving national languages.
I would also like to see a shift toward a more tech-friendly environment and financial support for new business owners. However, when you examine some countries closer, you see that they struggle with different problems: corruption, geopolitical shifting, war, etc., so their focus is elsewhere.
These are mostly Eastern Bloc countries that are disrupting economic and political stability. +
At the level of several governments of individual countries, they have started to introduce laws and measures that demotivate entrepreneurs to do business rather than start something.
My question is more about how to encourage people to start businesses and help them do something when the situation in Europe is less stable.
(IMO, it is a lot about mentality, but the majority of people here are quite conservative, not so much business-driven compared to the US. Honor to a few exceptions.)
@busmark_w_nika "My question is more about how to encourage people to start businesses and help them do something when the situation in Europe is less stable."
I think the easiest way to get people to start more businesses in Europe is to make it easier to start and run a business in Europe. Once it gets easier, you'll see more people try it, and more people get successful because it'll become easier to run a business here. That means more entrepreneurs will get rich and that in turn attracts more Europeans to consider entrepreneurship as a path!
As you allude to, the core problem seems ro be social and spiritual. Many Europeans lack the will to start businesses or to otherwise generate positive change, and this unwillingness is exacerbated by the regulatory atmosphere that actively discourages those who would like to build something new from doing so.
Consequently, the answer seems to be in great part social and spiritual. Europe needs active entrepreneurs, tech start-up founders, and other acceleration inclined people to be vocal about what they do, and to inspire others to follow in their footsteps.
Imo, even if these people run parts or most of their business elsewhere, they should be clear and active in communicating why they do so, and what would europe need to do for them to bring their business back home.
The essence here is that young wannabe entrepreneurs need role models and examples on how to make things work, whilst european decision-makers (including the democratic populus) need to understand why european entrepreneurs choose to leave.
@eliasluoto "As you allude to, the core problem seems ro be social and spiritual. Many Europeans lack the will to start businesses or to otherwise generate positive change, and this unwillingness is exacerbated by the regulatory atmosphere that actively discourages those who would like to build something new from doing so."
Yep, but the reason the culture is so anti-entrepreneurial here is because there's no financial benefit to start a company here after you are faced with the regulation (and taxes!) you have to comply with and pay.
It is hard to build a startup in EU because EU people made it this way. They have chosen to build a Soviet Union v2.0. Everybody is equal, no one is offended, all live the same good life 🙂
A Soviet Union type of gov is based on bureaucracy. It needs a lot of officials, institutions, representatives, regulators. LOTS of people involved in keeping this "equality" regime stable.
The question: are the people of Europe ready to give away good and stable quality of life in exchange for the future prosperity?
@vladimir_zivkovic I disagree completely. I'm Dutch and I feel quite similar to Danish, Swedish, even Germans. Also less but still quite close to French, def close to Spanish.
@levelsio @vladimir_zivkovic Culture is a gradient. Vikings and Normans invaded Ireland for example. The Irish nobility ran to Spain. The French helped the failed Irish revolution in 1798. Spain was ruled by the Moors (Muslims). The English invaders moved to Ireland and became Irish etc etc. I understand people who have a strong attachment to homeland still but due to my mixed background (3rd culture kid) I feel more European than Irish but I also feel Irish. Identity is complex and variable and internet culture is reducing the variance between youth cultures in different countries. I would love to see a Federal Europe though of course the devil is in the details.
Why deregulation and not focusing on making things easier for small to midsize businesses? You mention the latter as a couple points on your site. Focus on preventing the giant monopolies from having too much sway, allowing for more competition and ingenuity, much of which is lacking across tech.
I feel like regulations and expectations for businesses are good if they protect the consumer/environment/society and keep individuals/companies from taking advantage of systems or having too much power - unfortunately, much like most of the companies highlighted above from the US.
As a US citizen who's experiencing "deregulation" firsthand, can't say it's always a good thing.
@ben_griese "Why deregulation and not focusing on making things easier for small to midsize businesses? You mention the latter as a couple points on your site. Focus on preventing the giant monopolies from having too much sway, allowing for more competition and ingenuity, much of which is lacking across tech."
You essentially answered your own question:
Regulation is why it's now hard for startups and small and medium businesses to operate in Europe.
Regulation ironically makes it easier for big corporations to operate because they can easily afford to hire people and invest resources to comply with all the legislation.
For example: Meta can train giant AI models like Llama and face the legal risks and regulatory risks of doing that: breaking the law won't bankrupt it. A small startup would get crushed if it'd break the law.
Not that legality should always direct morality, but why is breaking the law a good example?
Deregulation isn't going to stop giant corporations from breaking the law. It's just going to make it easier for them to get away with it or take advantage of consumers and their data. I'd much rather live somewhere with ethical companies versus the opposite.
A better solution could be to regulate these large corps once they reach increasingly larger stages, and loosen regulations for smaller companies allowing for easier entry (which I believe you mention), along with establishing VCs or incubators to help navigate the supposedly difficult landscape. To that tune, anyone who is trying to navigate something many have done before them (which often comes with guides or people who are willing to help) is not using their resources, may not be ready, or it could be many other factors. Going fast and breaking things isn't always the answer.
If you want to gain any traction within the EU or elsewhere, "deregulation" may be the wrong framework to highlight, but I think you have a few good points on your site meant to benefit society as a whole.
@ben_griese Yep I agree with this.
It's not just about breaking the law though. The amount of work it takes to comply with all the EU regulation is too much for startups and small and medium businesses. Charging sales tax in 27 different countries making sure you get the right sales tax rate for that country that day and reporting it to their IRS. Following every little GDPR rule. Having to register yourself for every single thing you do related to AI. It's quite endless.
Great insights! It’s not just regulations stifling innovation, but also the existing bureaucratic apparatus: we have EU-wide excellence, but access to European funding is restricted by massive bureaucracy and administrative procedures. I have experienced of brilliant researchers and developers who wanted to apply for EU funding and gave up because they could not afford to hire someone to take care of the paperwork. The result? A strong geographic clustering of European funding, which in turn causes brain drain because talents go where the opportunities (and money) are. Also, there can be no real competition with the US and China if you don’t have a wide participation in research and development.
Hi Pieter,
I'm hosting an AI conference in Vienna in September with 590 AI enthusiasts.
I want to address this topic, but I don't want to end without a decent call to action on what we can do to improve the situation in Europe.
Do you have any ideas? Better ideas than phoning your representatives?
🤖 Raphael
PS: You wouldn't happen to be willing to speak there in person, would you? 😅
@raphael_schaad Yes! Contribute your ideas on https://euacc.com/ and share it with everyone you know.
The more attention eu/acc gets, the more we're asked for advice by EU and national politicians in Europe on how to improve things.
The politicians are a reflection of it's people. Our people don't want this change, that's the main issue it seems like.
So I'm mostly concerned about how strong the influence of mainstream media is in Europe, most people basically just believe everything the media says (or worse yet, what is DOESNT say, ie lying by omission). Suddenly everyone around me says the speech from JD vance was a "wake up call", and then they go on to say that we should limit American values and companies from Europe, totally missing his point. It's like they are shocked by him calling for less immigration and more freedom of speech. Wow what a radical wake up call?? These people basically need a brick thrown to their head before they realize what is happening.
So I guess the question is, how can we create a parallel "system" that just takes over once the old system crumbles from it's own dead weight? How can we focus on what is positive and work together more? What can we do practically as a small group?
@levelsio you had this whole rant on your own x account that the people kept you down. That’s what I mean, spiritually speaking most EU people “voted” for this. They don’t like things to change. I get how the whole system works technically speaking.
@nevil I agree with most of the issues Vance brought but I’m upset at his speech because it is completely disingenuous. For example he says Europe is censoring too much when his own parties approach is to flood the zone, which is a form of censorship. This is their documented strategy. We’re not going to just to let Americans own the narrative when they are speed running 90s Russia at home.
In a perfect world, lot's would change.
However, it's not a perfect world. What do you think are the lowest effort, highest impact changes that the EU could make to reverse the trend and create a virtuous cycle that would continue to fuel more growth?
@nathansrobinson Mostly what's in the https://euacc.com/ manifesto already. But specifically immediately repeal the following regulation:
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Digital Services Act (DSA)
Digital Markets Act (DMA)
ePrivacy Regulation
The AI Act
And exempt small businesses like startups with annual revenues below €10 million from complex regulations like these. So they can focus on building.
Create a European-wide company type with a European tax and law system modeled after the best legal systems for business in the world like the US, UK and Singapore.
This way it lets us build startups not tied to one EU country, but just be a European startup from the start. And it lets us start a regulatory environment for startups from scratch.
I know it would be a tough one, but what do you think about united EU currency?
I'm invoicing Germany/UK contries from Czech Republic and always loosing 5-10 % on "currency conversion".
Love what you do, following the eu/acc since first days.
@tomas_votruba We have :D it's the Euro. It's up to the Czechs to decide if they want it too. They decided not to.
The Euro has big issues too though. Poorer countries like Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece cannot devalue their currency based on weaker demand, which means they stay artifically expensive and cannot compete properly. If they had their own currencies, they'd devalue based on weaker demand, and they'd become cheaper to buy, and their exports would increase.
Instead the Euro gives Germany the biggest benefit. It has the opposite effect there: Germany stays artifically cheap due to the poorer countries in the Euro union.
@tomas_votruba @levelsio I’ve been banging this drum for years too. More people need to understand this. In Germany they think they are fiscally responsible and propping up the poor southerners with debt when the reality is more complex.
@rory_koehler I want to avoid that as it seems too much work. I think just highlighting the problems and proposing practical solutions and then presenting them to politicians who want to hear them (as I already did with Mario Draghi) is a good place to be in.
@levelsio understandable. If not an actual party I can definitely see an opportunity for 3rd party political parties to self-organise around the policy points highlighted by euacc. Think EPP or ALDE (as mentioned in another comment).
This is an incredibly important initiative, possibly the most important civilian initiative in Europe today, and I really appreciate you using your reach like this.
I've been following you from back in the days you were blogging. You've consistently had an unconventional take that was rooted in your sincere and idiosyncratic observations. I aspire to call it all out as honestly as you do. EuAcc is only the latest example.
But please, as a Dutch citizen and major critic of the EU system, please don't use the EU logo to rally the troops. I am 100% on board with you philosophically and energetically, but using the EU logo is like pooping in the party punch. The EU doesn't include Switzerland (where I live) or the UK (which are certainly Europe too) and it represents a certain (failed imo) philosophical approach to European coherence — to which you're proposing an alternative.
New logo please!
@jessems That's the flag of Europe. It way predates the EU. From wikipedia:
The flag of Europe or European flag[note 1] consists of twelve golden stars forming a circle on a blue field. It is the official flag of the European Union. It was designed and adopted in 1955 by the Council of Europe (CoE) as a symbol for the whole of Europe.
Survol
Do you think current EU leadership needs to chage to truly set-up eu/acc ? have you noticed one party more compatible than the others with the eu:acc ideology on a european-level ?