Ladies and gentlemen, dear, I really believe that today is a defining moment for European founders and innovative enterprises,

start ups and scale ups.

I want to start as Henna, expressing my gratitude to you, to Michael, to your teams and the whole College,

and of course, the President of the Commission for her vision and commitment.

To this file, but I also want to thank the many people outside this room who are not present here today, but I'm pretty much sure that they are following very closely what we are going to propose today,

because they built the momentum for us to be here today,

and this initiative was really born from the ground up. The message to you, we heard you.

And we believe that we did propose a really ambitious package today. We have a proposal for a regulation.

And as Henna said, every year Europe creates more companies than any other region in the world, and when I meet those companies and their founders,

all of them want to stay in Europe,

but at least a third of them are sharing that they maybe feel pressed to leave Europe,

and they don't want.

They only capital, what they want is client and easy access to our single market,

and I really believe that EU Inc will help them to find clients.

Of course, Michael will present the details of the EU Inc. In a moment.

I want just to mention that we have addressed most of the requests of the startup community single entry point for registration,

stock options, fast track insolvency procedures for them.

To allow that, today we are recommending a common definition for innovative enterprises,

innovative start ups and innovative scale ups.

They were widely consulted with our stakeholders and based on international standards.

They are designed to be objective, easily verifiable and adapted for different sectors.

The definitions will allow the Commission,

the national authorities and the European Investment Bank to design policies and programs specifically for start ups and scale ups.

These companies have different needs from other small and medium sized enterprises.

Start ups and scale ups can be risky.

They may take a long time to make money, and some will fail.

But this is also how new ideas grow, and a big success begins.

With the right support and clear, simple policies,

we can help them succeed more often and build a stronger, more innovative economy for everyone.

According to the definitions, innovative startups will be companies that develop innovative products or services,

have less than 100 employees, less than €10 million turnover, and younger than 10 years. Innovative scale-ups are fast growing companies.

Whose annual turnover or balance sheet total exceeds 10 million and whose average annual increase in the number of employees or revenue exceeds 20% over the two preceding years.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is, of course, just a starting point.

The next steps will lie in the co-legislators.

I am confident that, through cooperation and the continued support of our community,

we will bring these initiatives across the finish line until the end of the year. Commissioner.