NO REGULATION WITHOUT AUTOMATION.

Europe is suffocating under its own rules. GDPR alone cut 12% of SME profits. • Billions wasted • Startups crushed • Compliance = a tax on innovation Everyone knows the system is broken. Instead of fixing it, more layers of regulation are added. This is a bold but feasible vision for a DOGE EU—a Europe where you can just build. Regulation shouldn’t feel like a death sentence. It should be invisible. Instant. Automated. Instead, Europe has built a system that slows things down: • Compliance officers running startups instead of operations • “We’ll get back to you in 6-8 weeks” as the default response • Seed-stage startups drowning in legal fees before even launching The US can afford to “move fast and break things.” Europe can’t. • No Musk • No tolerance for cutting corners • No regulatory forgiveness A real DOGE EU isn’t about deregulation. It’s about automation first, regulation second. If a rule can be automated, it should be. If it can’t, it doesn’t apply to SMEs. Regulation shouldn’t be a tax on innovation. GDPR is the case study. It didn’t just protect data—it killed growth. • 12% profit loss for SMEs • Billions wasted on compliance costs • Entire industries buried in paperwork, audits, and legal fees The lesson? Regulation isn’t the problem. Compliance burden is. Killing GDPR isn’t the solution—killing the compliance burden is. Iubenda, an Italian startup, already automates GDPR compliance. The EU could fund an open-source GDPR compliance tool that is: • Not-for-profit • Mandatory for SMEs • Zero cost. Zero friction. Plug it in. Move on. Regulating AI? Use AI to enforce rules instead. Start with data protection. Learn. Iterate. Then expand: • Employment law • Tax compliance Eventually, integrate it all under a 28th Regime framework for seamless compliance across Europe. AI should be the regulator, not the regulated. If Europe wants to lead in AI, it needs to use AI itself. The standard should be simple. • If compliance can be automated, it should be. • If it can’t, the rule doesn’t apply to SMEs. • No automation = No enforcement. Same rules, zero friction. This isn’t deregulation. It’s prioritization. • Big corporations? They can handle compliance. • Small businesses? They should be able to just build. Why this works. If regulators must fund the compliance software, they’re forced to: • Make laws automation-ready • Avoid vague, useless rules • Eliminate interpretation gaps that kill startups This could cut compliance nightmares by 80% in 12 months. If a rule can’t be automated, it can’t apply. No third option. DOGE EU should be a real institution. A dedicated EU body under the Commission that: • Reviews key regulations • Conducts Automation Suitability Analysis • Proposes urgent automation pathways • Quantifies the economic growth unlocked by reducing compliance burdens Instead of bureaucracy growing, DOGE EU would shrink it. A regulator that works like a startup, not a government agency. Every regulation should be tested for automation. • Can this be automated? • What’s the real compliance cost? • If automation isn’t possible, should SMEs be exempt? This is Automation Suitability Analysis. It should be mandatory for every Regulatory Impact Assessment. No automation? No enforcement for SMEs. Europe has two choices. • Drown businesses in paperwork. • Turn regulation into seamless, automated software. One path kills innovation. The other supercharges it. NO REGULATION WITHOUT AUTOMATION. This phrase takes inspiration from “No taxation without representation.” It’s time for a regulatory-resistant approach to make Europe truly great again. Regulate like it’s 2025, not 1825. Regulate through software, not paperwork. If automation isn’t possible, SMEs & startups are exempt. Because we have chosen to prioritize prosperity over rigid formalism. Vote for this idea if you like it. The future of business & Europe depends on it.

The Imperative of Financial Democratisation in Europe

In the United States, millions of ordinary citizens have participated directly in their country's economic growth through share ownership. Meanwhile, across Europe, we continue to favour savings accounts and real estate investments. This preference leaves substantial potential wealth underutilised and represents a missed opportunity for both individuals and the broader European economy. When Europeans invest in their companies, they not only build personal wealth but also provide vital capital to businesses that create jobs, innovate, and compete globally. This virtuous circle strengthens our entire economic ecosystem. Yet this potential remains largely untapped. Two Critical Barriers to Financial Democratisation 1. Financial Literacy Gap The absence of comprehensive financial education in our educational systems has created generations of Europeans who lack understanding of basic investment principles. Most citizens cannot explain how equity markets function, how compounding works, or why diversification matters. This knowledge gap leaves them vulnerable to fear-driven decisions, market timing mistakes, and questionable advice from social media "experts." Financial literacy should be mandatory in secondary education across the EU. Young Europeans deserve to understand money management, investment principles, and the role of capital markets as thoroughly as they understand mathematics or science. 2. Market Fragmentation While Americans enjoy relatively seamless access to their unified market through user-friendly platforms, Europeans face a patchwork of national markets with different regulations, reporting standards, and accessibility. This fragmentation creates particular challenges in smaller countries and for smaller companies seeking investment. The lack of a centralised repository for financial documents and standardised reporting hinders the development of innovative investment applications. This creates an environment where potential entrepreneurs cannot easily build solutions to connect these disparate systems. The Case for Change Democratising investment across Europe would generate significant benefits: For citizens, it would create pathways to wealth building beyond traditional savings and property. With Europeans living longer, diversified investment portfolios offer crucial opportunities for long-term financial security. For companies, broader retail investment would provide additional capital for expansion, research, and job creation. Mid-sized European firms particularly would benefit from expanded access to investor capital. For the European economy, increased investment activity would improve market efficiency, potentially offering companies valuations more comparable to their American counterparts. This would strengthen Europe's position in global markets and enhance our competitive standing. Perhaps most importantly, creating a more accessible European investment ecosystem would help reverse the current capital flow imbalance. Today, Europeans invest significantly in American markets, while our own businesses struggle to attract sufficient capital. A more cohesive, accessible European market would attract investment from around the world, just as America has done for decades. The path toward financial democratisation in Europe requires political will, educational reform, and technological innovation. But the rewards—a more financially secure citizenry, stronger companies, and a more dynamic economy—make this journey not just worthwhile, but imperative. - Silba I write about European companies at Silba Deep Dives

The Austrian Backpack: Unlocking Labor Mobility and Productivity in Europe

A well-functioning labor market should efficiently allocate workers to positions where they are most productive relative to the rest of the workforce. However, Europe’s rigid labor regulations actively discourage this, forcing workers to choose between job security and better opportunities. This creates perverse incentives that distort the labor market in three key ways: Workers hesitate to switch jobs because their severance pay resets every time they change employers. Companies struggle to hire top talent because firing is expensive, making them overly cautious in recruitment. Employees are also hesitant to leave stable positions. Unproductive but expensive-to-fire employees remain employed, while young, highly productive workers struggle to find opportunities. The result? A stagnant, inefficient labor market that makes Europe poorer. Productivity declines, wages stagnate, and both workers and businesses suffer. Spain: A Labor Market Designed for Inertia Spain is a prime example of how poorly designed labor laws create a static, inefficient workforce. The biggest issue is that severance pay is heavily dependent on tenure, leading to: Long-tenured workers accumulating costly dismissal protections, making them reluctant to switch jobs. Companies hesitating to fire employees, creating a static labor market where underproductive workers remain employed instead of being replaced by more efficient hires. Weakened bargaining power for experienced workers, as they cannot credibly threaten to leave unless they receive a much better offer. Difficulty in "poaching" tenured employees, even when they would be more productive elsewhere. This problem is particularly severe for smaller businesses, as career progression within a company depends on internal job openings. Switching jobs within the same company has little friction, but leaving for a new employer carries significant risk. The Austrian Backpack System Portable Individual Savings Accounts Implemented in Austria in 2003, the Austrian Backpack is an individual capitalization fund where employers contribute a fixed percentage of an employee's salary into a personal, portable account. This fund follows the worker across different jobs, eliminating the severance pay reset issue. Access and Retirement Benefits Workers can access their accumulated funds upon termination—whether they are fired or resign. If the funds remain unused during their working life, they can be converted into a retirement pension, providing long-term financial security. As a result, Austria enjoys a more dynamic labor market than its Southern European counterparts, with lower unemployment and higher productivity. Denmark: A Bonus Example of Flexibility in Action Denmark takes a different approach but achieves similar outcomes by prioritizing labor market flexibility: Weak job protection laws make hiring and firing easy. Unemployment insurance is voluntary and privately managed, reducing dependency on public welfare. High labor mobility ensures that workers move to the jobs where they are most productive. Unlike much of Europe, Denmark doesn’t rely on excessive severance pay or restrictive job protection laws. Instead, workers can freely switch jobs, knowing they have individually funded unemployment insurance if needed. How the Austrian Backpack Fixes Europe’s Labor Market Workers no longer hesitate to switch jobs, as their severance benefits move with them. Companies can restructure and hire talent more easily, without excessive firing costs. Young workers gain fairer opportunities, breaking the cycle of stagnant wages and high youth unemployment. Productivity increases, as workers naturally relocate to jobs where they create the most value. Europe doesn’t need more regulation—it needs flexibility, fairness, and efficiency. A market-driven approach in addressing unemployment leads to a more prosperous Europe.

No capital gains tax for startup investments

Stimulate economic growth and innovation by encouraging investment in Seed and early-stage companies. By removing this tax burden, investors may be more inclined to allocate funds to startups, potentially leading to increased innovation and job creation. Potential Benefits: Enhanced Investment in Startups: Without the concern of capital gains tax, investors might be more willing to fund startups, providing them with the necessary capital to grow and innovate. Economic Growth: Increased investment in startups can lead to the development of new products and services, fostering economic expansion and competitiveness. Job Creation: As startups grow, they often hire additional staff, contributing to job creation and reducing unemployment rates.

Compete with Meta, X, Tiktok and Google

Europe should build its own social networks and core digital services. Homegrown social media can create autonomy while creating jobs and fostering innovation. It will also stop bleeding money to US and China as relying on their platforms make Europe vulnerable to monopolies and external influences.

European Advanced Research Agency

Finally, we propose the establishment of a European Advanced Research Agency modelled after ARPA & ARC in the US and ARIA in the UK. This agency would focus on high-risk, high-reward research with the potential to yield long term transformative technological advances. One way to do this could be for the EU to revise the charter of existing agencies like the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

Innovation through Digital Sandboxes

Implement Digital Sandboxes across Europe to allow businesses to test and scale new ideas within a framework with lower regulatory burden. This approach, inspired by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority10, would reduce barriers to market participation for innovative businesses, particularly in sectors like healthcare and energy, enhancing Europe’s capacity to lead in technology and services in a more inclusive manner.

Standardisation and Digital Integration

a) We advocate for a vastly simplified incorporation process across Europe, making it digital, cost-effective, and universally compliant. Incorporating anywhere in Europe should be as easy and cheap as in the UK. In the EU, incorporation should be automatically compliant across the Union, by building on the Societas Europea (SE) framework8. b) Introduce standardised convertible note investment instruments, modelled after the successful American SAFE note, to harmonise early-stage funding mechanisms across Europe. This approach would standardise and simplify investment processes, providing a clear and consistent framework for startups and investors throughout the continent. c) Extend standardisation to public digital infrastructures such as health records, KYC, transport systems, payments, and e-signatures, which should be accessible via REST APIs to ensure interoperability and efficiency. The EU could expand on the digital single market and individual countries should look at existing precedents such as the X-Road initiative. d) Adopt a uniform design system for all European government digital services, inspired by the UK’s gov.uk system, to reduce costs, enhance security, improve user experience, and ensure inclusion. This design approach should be open source and made accessible for other countries, to set a global standard.9

Creation of Common Markets - Priority given to Defense Procurement, Capital, and Energy

a) Establishing a European Capital Markets Union is essential for strengthening Europe’s economic foundation, enhancing access to capital, and mitigating the risk of economic stagnation. There is widespread academic and institutional consensus in favour of this proposal,45 and the EU has already laid the groundwork to bring this to fruition. b) A common Defense Procurement Market is essential for strengthening the European defense-tech sector, a vital step if Europe is to assume a leadership role in safeguarding freedom and democracy amidst the rising global threats posed by authoritarian regimes.6 c) The development of a Common Energy Market, which integrates diverse energy sources across Europe, is critical not only for sustainability but also for strategic autonomy. The current geopolitical landscape has heightened the urgency for this initiative, catalysing political will to create a robust and independent energy framework.7

Corporate Tax Reform: Adoption of Cash Flow Tax Design

The empirical evidence in the economic literature suggests that corporate tax, as currently structured, is a suboptimal method of taxation due to its inefficiency and distortionary effects.1 We propose shifting European corporate taxes to a cash-flow-based tax system where taxes are levied only when profits are distributed to shareholders. This change will encourage reinvestment of profits back into businesses, thereby fostering capital formation and economic growth. Estonia and Latvia offer leading examples of this approach, with the UK having also moved towards similar mechanisms.23

Stimulate investments rather than savings

Markets having a more liquid and open investment culture tend to support innovation more. Consider regulatory steps to make (private) investment easy and cheap.

Stimulate IPOs in Europe

Many companies in Europe tend to go public in the US because of a more liquid market with less regulations. Keep companies HQ and stock listings in Europe to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Let's return the European Union to its roots

The best way to free EU citizens from the clutches of bureaucratic red tape is to return to the era before the Maastricht and Lisbon Treaties. The European Union originated from the European Community, whose core objectives were to establish a common market based on a customs union, in other words, to eliminate economic barriers, coordinate economic policies, and thus raise living standards across member states. Over time, genuine progress toward these foundational goals has been overshadowed by the gradual expansion of European institutions into other policy areas. Today, the bureaucratic machinery in Brussels has become an end in itself, diverting significant resources to projects from the protection dandelions in meadows to promoting gender ideology. If any democratically elected government fails to align with so-called woke policies, they are pressured with exorbitant fines for breaches of the rule of law and similar infractions. The European Union is not inherently flawed; it simply needs to be steered back onto the right path!

Stop and change

To save Europe we must change Green deal, woke culture, immigration policy. The war with Russia must end. Europe is a world turned upside down. European countries have big potentiality but Europen bureaucracy kill them. A strong alliance between american and european patriots is the solution.

EU should introduce, allow, and support the concept of Special Economic Zones (SEZ)..

This concept has proven in many places like Hong Kong, Singapore, or Prospera in Honduras, to be the most efficient driver of economic growth. While there are different kinds of SEZ with different degree of sovereignty, creating a zone similar to Prospera could significantly boost innovation for the companies created there, while creating revenue from (lower) taxes.

Standardise tax models

Make tax models across member states of the eurozone be the same, so one canonical model fits all taxation systems inside the Eurozone, easing the process startups can keep up to date with taxation system in Europe

Implement the Capital Markets Union

The EU has a single market for goods, services, and labour, but still doesn't have a true single market for capital. Letting capital flow where it's most needed would be transformative for both member states’ financial sectors and entrepreneurs, please can we just finalise the CMU a decade after the first action plan came out

Another industrial revolution

The future of robotics isn’t just about technology—it’s about people. Europe is positioning itself as the global leader in humanoid robotics, with a strong focus on improving lives, driving innovation, and ensuring ethical development. Humanoid robots have the potential to transform healthcare, especially in eldercare, where they can support an aging population and ease the burden on caregivers. They can also create new, high-value jobs and spark innovation across industries, strengthening economies and fostering international collaboration. But progress must be responsible. Ethical AI development, with clear safeguards for privacy, employment, and social well-being, is a top priority. Robotics should serve society, not replace it. To make this vision a reality, Europe should investing in world-class research labs, providing funding for startups, and forming strong public-private partnerships. This is about building a future where technology truly benefits people—thoughtfully, sustainably, and inclusively.

Fight with corruption

Corruption is a cancer of a free and democratic society. It can manifest itself in many ways such as bribes, nepotism, lobbying. This hinders or even prevents free development and healthy competition. Therefore, any symptom of corruption should have serious consequences, threatening not only disqualification from holding public function and a ban on holding public office, but also prison sentences. The punishment should be particularly severe for the highest public positions.

Portugal Great Again 🇵🇹

Place André Ventura as President. Cut All Taxes by 20%. Cut the amount of ministers on the parliament and cut their salaries. Remigration 100% applicable , send home all illegal foreigners, everyone that as committed any type of crime that was not born on this country should be deported, cut all the aids to the immigration plans Increase the minimum wages by 30% Decrease the house prices by 30% Decrease inflation of all goods by 30% Put the justice system into action, put the police strong again and make sure that the law does the right justice for all citizens. KEY IDEAS: Innovative Education: Invest in modern and accessible teaching methods, such as classroom technology, online platforms, and ongoing teacher education. Environmental Sustainability: Promote renewable energy, recycling, and protection of natural reserves for a greener future. Quality Healthcare: Improve healthcare services by investing in medical technology, training professionals, and ensuring universal access to health services. Digital Economy: Support startups and tech companies to create an innovative and competitive environment. Urban Mobility: Develop efficient and sustainable transport infrastructure, such as metro networks and bike lanes. Culture and Heritage: Value and promote the country's rich cultural and historical heritage, attracting tourism and investment. Renewable Energy Expansion: Accelerate the development of solar, wind, and wave energy projects to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. Agricultural Innovation: Support sustainable farming practices, precision agriculture, and organic farming to boost the agricultural sector. Tourism Diversification: Promote lesser-known regions and niche tourism experiences, such as eco-tourism and cultural tours, to spread economic benefits. Smart Cities: Implement smart technologies in urban planning to improve public services, reduce traffic congestion, and enhance the quality of life. Public Safety and Security: Enhance emergency services, cybersecurity, and community policing to ensure a safer environment for all citizens. Work-Life Balance: Promote policies that encourage flexible working hours, remote work opportunities, and work-life balance initiatives. Digital Literacy: Improve digital literacy programs to ensure all citizens have the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly digital world. Entrepreneurial Support: Create incubators, accelerators, and funding opportunities to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. Public Transportation: Expand and modernize public transportation networks, making them more accessible and eco-friendly. Affordable Housing: Develop policies to ensure affordable housing options for all citizens, reducing homelessness and improving living conditions.