Key pillars EU policymaking should uphold in the coming years: competitiveness, strategic autonomy, and security. But it is difficult to talk about European competitiveness if it is primarily driven by non-EU companies.
By Kosta Juri, head of policy research at IED – Institute for Economic Democracy
Over the past years, a broad consensus has begun to take shape around what key pillars EU policymaking should uphold in the coming years: competitiveness, strategic autonomy, and security. But it is difficult to talk about European competitiveness if it is primarily driven by non-EU companies. Likewise, genuine strategic autonomy is hard to imagine without Europeans retaining control over their productive assets. For too long, the continent has excelled at producing talent, ideas, and technological breakthroughs – only to see them captured and scaled elsewhere. Addressing this imbalance requires more than funding programs or industrial strategies. It requires confronting the question of ownership directly.
Who owns Europe?
Over the past decades, we have witnessed the rise of new US-based market players whose size and influence have no historical precedent. Companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, OpenAI and others provide the essential infrastructure few of us can imagine living without. But US pervasion is not confined to big tech. As many as three in four European start-ups being bought up by US firms – a process that ultimately converts European innovation into foreign profit. Another hunting ground for US-based financial firms is SMEs seeking succession options as hundreds of thousands of business owners across Europe are nearing retirement age and looking for someone to take over their businesses.
Our entire economies are gradually slipping out of our control, largely driven by the rise of US-based asset managers, which have dramatically bolstered their presence on the European continent. Estimates suggest that today US-based asset managers control 31% of European assets.[1] This trend is particularly visible in the stock market, where the big three US asset managers – Blackrock, StateStreet and Vanguard – are leading the pack.
This is problematic on at least two levels. Firstly, as decision-making moves from local communities to offices in Manhattan high-rises, the priorities of the affected businesses change dramatically – the focus is not on creating innovative products and services but on increasing returns for anonymous shareholders. Secondly, without safeguards to preserve European ownership, foreign actors gain easier access to European profits and critical know-how. If this trend continues, Europe will not only lose its ability to compete on the global stage – it will lose its ability to control its own fate.
It is time to put ownership back on the agenda
Encouragingly, over the past years, ownership has been making a noticeable comeback in EU policymaking, as reflected in the Report on the 28th Regime for Innovative Companies. Besides making it significantly easier for businesses to focus on growing and innovating in the EU, a perhaps overlooked yet crucial element of the current proposal is the introduction of provisions on employee participation in business through employee stock options (ESOs), employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), and steward ownership.
Employee ownership and steward ownership structures in particular carry immense potential by offering a voluntary exit strategy designed to preserve a company’s mission in the long run and protect its ownership structure from external influence. For those entrepreneurs who care deeply about securing their company’s long-term, sustainable growth and autonomy, options like this should exist. But currently, this is not the case: Legal barriers and a lack of legal certainty stand in the way of broader implementation.
Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP)
At its core, the ESOP model enables leveraged employee buyouts of profitable companies, allowing business owners to sell their business – or part of it – to their employees. It does so by establishing a special-purpose vehicle that acquires an ownership stake on behalf of the employees, with the buyout financed entirely through a portion of the company’s future profits. This creates an evergreen employee ownership structure which, depending on whether it holds a majority or minority ownership stake, can be used either to motivate and reward employees or to solve the generational succession problem.
Against this backdrop, several Member States have already started to take concrete steps toward addressing these barriers over the past few years. Slovenia leading the way by introducing the first ESOP legislation in 2026.[2] Denmark followed shortly thereafter,[3] and discussions are currently underway in the Spanish government.[4] All these countries have adopted a broadly similar approach to implementing the ESOP model, making EU-level standardisation a realistic idea. They provide a blueprint that could be easily replicated across the EU-27 without meeting political resistance, as ESOPs have long stood as one of the rare issues which unites politicians from across the aisle.
Steward Ownership
Unlike traditional shareholder-based companies, steward-owned businesses separate control rights from profit rights. Decision-making power is entrusted to stewards who are committed to the company’s mission and long-term development rather than personal financial gain. At the same time, the company’s profits serve the business’s purpose and future growth first rather than short-term shareholder returns, with investors receiving fair compensation. By separating control from financial gain, steward ownership creates a governance structure that encourages long-term thinking and independence. In this sense, steward ownership offers a middle ground between traditional for-profit and non-profit models.
Several well-known European companies already operate under variations of the steward ownership model. In Denmark, enterprise foundations have long acted as stable owners of large firms such as Carlsberg, helping secure long-term investment strategies while also supporting philanthropic initiatives. Beyond large corporations, steward ownership is increasingly attracting mission-driven start-ups and family businesses seeking alternatives to traditional exit strategies.
Despite its potential, and similarly to ESOPs, steward ownership remains difficult to implement across much of Europe due to the lack of clear legal frameworks. Entrepreneurs often need complex legal structures – such as foundations or special-purpose entities – to replicate the model, which increases costs and legal uncertainty. If supported through appropriate legal frameworks at both national and EU level, steward ownership could become an important addition to Europe’s corporate landscape.
Europe cannot afford to wait any longer
By enabling founders to secure the long-term independence of the companies they build, ownership models such as ESOPs and steward ownership provide an alternative to the default trajectory that too often leads European innovation to be absorbed by foreign capital. Doing so, the EU would take a meaningful step toward ensuring that the ideas, technologies, and businesses born in Europe remain an integral part of Europe’s economic fabric. The 28th Regime for Innovative Companies provides a unique opportunity to do exactly that. By incorporating legal frameworks that facilitate long-term-oriented ownership structures, the EU can give entrepreneurs the tools they need to grow, innovate, and remain anchored in the continent. Because if Europe wants to shape its own future rather than adapt to decisions made elsewhere, it must ensure that the companies shaping tomorrow’s economy remain, quite simply, European.
[2] Tej Gonza, David Ellerman, Kosta Juri, Gregor Berkopec, and Tilen Božič, Slovenia Employee Ownership Cooperative Act: An Explanatory Guide to the New Cooperative ESOP Framework, https://ied.si/en/contributions/slovenia-employee-ownership-cooperative-act-an-explanatory-guide-to-the-new-cooperative-esop-framework/ .
[3] Corey Rosen, “Denmark Passes Law to Encourage Employee Ownership,” NCEO Blog, https://www.nceo.org/employee-ownership-blog/denmark-passes-law-to-encourage-employee-ownership