You can't lump European countries up like that. There are vast differences. Most offer high levels of entrepreneurial financing, supporting government policies, separate tax systems for entrepreneurs, programs, entrepreneurial education, high ratio of R&D investments turned into profit, and so on.

Actually, on most indicators most European countries lead US. The ones that are significantly lower are preferences towards entrepreneurship (most actually do not want that career option, and go for stable boring jobs), and the actual amounts of start-up companies. But still, the economic output of the EU per capita is higher than that of the US (has been for several years already), so who cares.

Here's something to read on in case you are really interested: Global Enterpreunership Monitor 2016-2017 global report (http://www.gemconsortium.org/report)

...apart from the ability to start a limited liability company with as little as 1€ in capital requirement, various tax exemptions and financial aid/sponsorship programs for start-ups and small companies in general?

This is tinted from my German point of view, but most of these programs have European equivalents or are available to large parts of the European population regardless of whether they live in Germany or not.

Once the tax breaks go away, so does your small business. That's the trouble with subsidies and tax extemptions caught up in gov't red tape.