Hardly anyone is familiar with the “28th regime”. It is the name for a new state that the EU is currently establishing – a virtual construct for large corporations that will be given a legal system beyond national legislation.
21 October 2025by Thomas Oysmüller tkp.at
When Ursula von der Leyen presented her “State of the Union” speech on 10 September, it was mainly about war and armament. But she also said: “We are preparing the 28th regime for innovative companies.” Most people may not have heard this sentence, but the 28th regime is yet another attack on the sovereignty of the member states – it is intended to override national legislation for companies and businesses. All legal areas are covered.
Goodbye national law
The plan is gaining support in the background and gaining momentum, without any major debate, as is usual for the EU. Initiated by Mario Draghi, who, like many others, is calling for harmonisation of the EU single market, the Commission apparently has an idea: it wants to create a fictitious member state, the “28th regime”, as the 28th member state. Instead of national laws, companies could then switch to this “right”.
The aim is to combat fragmentation in areas such as civil and company law, taxes and insolvency. However, critics point out that national labour rights, for example, could also be buried. It will initially apply to “start-ups” and “innovative companies”, but lobby groups such as BusinessEurope and EuroCommerce are already pushing for it to be extended to all companies.
Historically, it builds on failed EU attempts such as the Societas Europaea (SE) of 2004, which was mainly used by German groups to circumvent employee involvement. Similar plans have always failed because of employee rights. The European Parliament supports the concept: the Legal Affairs Committee adopted the EU-Inc proposals on 30 June 2025.
Trade unions are against it. The German DGB and the Danish confederation warned in the consultation against circumventing labour law. The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) rejected labour law regulations in March 2025 in order to maintain national protection standards.
The NGO Corporate Europe Observatory speaks of a “social dumping disaster” that serves lobby interests. Camille Adam, EU expert and author of a thread on X that went viral, calls it “death for French workers”. In her 25-part post, she warns: “A virtual state built for social dumping.” According to Adam, trade unions and the left are conspicuous by their absence and ignorance.
The “28th regime” would be optional, but de facto mandatory due to its advantages. This would render national laws completely obsolete. EU critics also point out that there is no political need for this. The EU market is already more integrated than the US market – although there are 51 different regimes there.
So what might really be hiding behind the 28th regime? One can recall the words of Austrian Vice-Chancellor Andreas Babler, long before he made it into top politics. He spoke of the EU as a “neoliberal, protectionist construct”. Now corporations and companies are rejoicing that they could soon have their own “EU state” – probably not to protect citizens’ rights, but the rights of corporations.
The Commission plans to take the first steps at the beginning of 2026, starting with online start-ups, followed by sensitive areas such as labour and taxes. The question of where this leaves the sovereignty of the national member states should not even be discussed.
