It makes me wonder what is a Societas Europaea then. I thought it was some kind of pan-European legal entity, even though it's probably not suited for startups at all, as it looks quite complicated to set-up from what I read on Wikipedia. If anyone has more insights, I am interested to learn more about that.
Per the Wikipedia article, the "SE must have a minimum subscribed capital of €120,000 as per article 4(2) of the directive".[1] Note that it's the regulation, not the directive, with the requirement.[2] It appears the OP's article discusses an alternative 28th regime model suitable for startups.[3] See also the recent European Commission project group on the subject.[4]
IIRC basically the SE is indeed complicated and has a bunch of requirements that would not make sense for a startup. Plus, it isn’t really a common denominator for different corporate laws, but they kinda add together so now you need to know about laws in Germany AND laws in Spain AND etc, wherever you operate.