FEDMA joins campaign for a 28th regime that works for all European businesses

The 28 for all campaign brings together a growing coalition of European businesses and trade associations calling on the EU and its Member States to act with ambition and speed on the proposed 28th Regime. As FEDMA, we strongly support this initiative as a critical lever to strengthen the Single Market and Europe’s competitiveness.

For Europe’s data‑driven marketing sector, largely composed of SMEs operating across borders, the existing fragmentation of corporate and regulatory frameworks continues to create unnecessary complexity and cost. Despite the promise of the Single Market, scaling activities across Member States remains burdensome and unpredictable, diverting resources away from innovation, growth, and responsible data use.

The 28th Regime represents a rare opportunity to address these structural barriers. If designed correctly, it could become the most significant pro‑business reform in the EU in more than two decades, offering companies a truly European legal framework that is consistent, predictable, and fit for cross‑border operations from day one.

The signatories urge the EU and its Member States to rise to the ambition of a 28^th Regime that is:

1. Open to all. The regime must be accessible to all companies, regardless of size, sector, or date of incorporation. Limiting eligibility to start‑ups or narrowly defined “innovative” firms would undermine the very objective of a Single Market instrument. Established SMEs and scale‑ups must equally be able to opt in and operate seamlessly as European companies.
2. A regulation only - directly applicable across all Member States - can eliminate fragmentation. Any framework subject to national transposition would reintroduce legal uncertainty and divergences, defeating the purpose of the reform and weakening its impact for businesses operating cross‑border.
3. Simple and digital by design. Registration and compliance under the 28th Regime must be at least as straightforward as under existing national systems. For data‑driven companies in particular, simplicity, digital‑by‑default procedures, and the once‑only principle are essential to reduce administrative burden and enable compliance at scale.

FEDMA and the wider “28 for all” coalition stand ready to work constructively with the EU institutions and Member States to ensure that the 28th Regime becomes a practical, inclusive, and transformative tool for European businesses of all sizes.

The full campaign statement and the list of signatories are available at 28forall.eu. European companies and business organisations can continue to pledge their support via the campaign website. It is high time to turn the promises of boosting competitiveness into concrete action. The signatories stand ready to collaborate with the EU institutions and Member States to make the 28^th Regime the transformative framework Europe needs.