In a written answer on 30 July 2026, Innovation Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva defended the European Commission's new European Startup and Scaleup Scoreboard against concerns that it duplicates the work of the Europe Startup Nations Alliance (ESNA), insisting the two tools are complementary and that the Commission has worked closely with ESNA to avoid overlap. The answer, responding to a parliamentary question from S&D MEP Carla Tavares, seeks to reassure member states and the startup community that EU funds are being used efficiently and that the Commission is building on, rather than duplicating, existing national efforts.
Tavares had asked how the Commission reconciled its 2024 tender for a pilot platform with ESNA's mandate, which was granted by a political declaration signed by 26 EU member states plus Iceland and Ukraine. She also questioned how the Commission would align its initiatives with that declaration and make use of ESNA's data platform. Zaharieva clarified that the Scoreboard, announced in the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy, is primarily an annual report providing comparative analysis of startup and scaleup ecosystems across the EU, based on 36 indicators grouped into six dimensions, with an interactive online visualisation tool. She noted that some indicators draw on ESNA data, but the Scoreboard is distinct from ESNA's data platform.
The Commissioner also highlighted that ESNA's work on monitoring startup-friendly policies is complementary to the Commission's European Semester, the EU's annual cycle for coordinating economic and social policies. She said ESNA's Startup Nations Standards provide a valuable source of analysis that can be used in that context, and that the Commission will continue to use relevant tools and data sources to support evidence-based policy-making.
The answer contains no new concrete proposals or numerical targets, but it signals a policy orientation toward centralised benchmarking and coordination, with the Commission positioning itself as the lead in assessing ecosystem performance. It also implicitly reassures member states that ESNA's role remains valued, while clarifying that the Commission will not rely solely on ESNA data. The response is likely to be followed by continued collaboration between the Commission and ESNA, with the Scoreboard expected to be updated annually and potentially feed into country-specific recommendations under the European Semester. The answer affects startup founders and investors, who may benefit from clearer comparative data, as well as national authorities and ESNA itself, which must now demonstrate its added value alongside the Commission's new tool.