The decided starting capital of a company like this takes the form of shares and must amount to at least €120,000 ($138,000). These securities can be traded on the stock exchange as usual. For the company, this business structure offers the advantage of being able to operate throughout the European Union without any hurdles. This makes it much easier for a European Company to open new branches in other EU countries.
If a company is to relocate to another EU country, this is much easier with a Societas Europaea. Under normal circumstances, a company with a national business structure has to set up a completely new company in the new country – at a correspondingly high cost. A European Company, on the other hand, has the freedom to relocate its registered office anywhere within the European Economic Area (EEA – EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway). It is also easier to merge two companies if both have the same SE structure.
However, a German Societas Europaea, for example, is not identical in every way to its counterparts in other countries. The corresponding EU regulation leaves gaps in some areas, which are filled by national company law as well as by already existing EU law. This applies, among other things, to tax law, competition law, industrial property law, and bankruptcy law.
A number of commercial law elements are regulated at national level, although the SE is an international business structure. Since, for example, there is no Europe-wide commercial register, these companies are also included in national commercial registers. The country of the head office is decisive. The formation of the company is then published in the Official Journal of the European Union. If the company moves its registered office to another country, it must be entered in the register again.