Can the EU Save Capitalism and Democracy at the Same Time? Is there a better way to ensure Europe's investment and capital growth climate? As Thomas Piketty states, the core engine of modern inequality is arithmetic: the return on capital (r) consistently exceeds the rate of economic growth (g). The structural outcome is an extreme concentration of wealth, threatening market stability and fueling political fragmentation. Traditionally, this wealth inequality is addressed through taxation (or: re-distribution). But this approach is reactive, often gridlocked by politics, and meets considerable opposition from those who benefit from the current design. What if we abandon this reactive struggle for a proactive, structural fix? What if re-distribution is changed to pre-distribution? A "Pan-European Stewardship Statute" could allow for enterprises that do not follow the common corporate model of maximum extraction, but instead mandate worker ownership and protect long-term purpose. In this article, I dive into the concept of a stewardship model that isn't a rejection of capitalism, but upgrades it to an ethical and sustainable option for cross-border cooperatives.