Start-ups from Member States intending to expand in the European Single Market face high barriers. Apart from difficulties to find funding sources or cultural barriers, regulatory and administrative obstacles are the main impediments preventing a faster scale-up process. Against this backdrop, Paul-Jasper Dittrich, research fellow at the Jacques Delors Institut – Berlin, analyses in this policy paper the most relevant regulatory barriers and discusses current policy proposals to improve the growth environment for start-ups in the spirit of further harmonization of the Single Market.