🇪🇺 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
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Replies
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 ?
eu/acc: European Accelerationism
@m_dolr I think the issue is that most parties who are pro-business are also anti-EU.
eu/acc is pro-EU and pro-business.
It's just that the EU (and especially the European Commission) is highly dysfunctional now.
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.
eu/acc: European Accelerationism
@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!
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.
Product Hunt
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.
eu/acc: European Accelerationism
@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.
@gabe @levelsio So true. It requires a shift in regulatory approach and, even deeper, a shift in mindset and culture (which is the most difficult part).
@gabe @levelsio it's unfortunately common to see the stage performance of business here instead of promoting innovation. But improving or simplifying regulation instead of throwing it out and welcoming back in fraud and social harm goes a long way to doing this in a distinctly European way.
As an American that's moved east across the Atlantic on purpose—I'd love to see a Third Way that doesn't turn my new home into the sometimes soulless grind that I left.
Product Hunt
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?
eu/acc: European Accelerationism
@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.
@steveb @levelsio
https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/running-business/developing-business/setting-up-european-company/index_en.htm
The SE is an interesting option to continue investing effort in improving.
What do you think about the European Union being one country?
eu/acc: European Accelerationism
@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.
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)?
eu/acc: European Accelerationism
@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.
Unicorn Platform
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?
eu/acc: European Accelerationism
@alexanderisora 100%
@alexanderisora Nailed it
Unicorn Platform
@jogicodes 🙏
eu/acc: European Accelerationism
@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.
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.