EU needs new direct own incomes

The reform of the EU revenue system is crucial to set up the new Recovery Fund to help Member States repair the economic and social damage inflicted by the Coronavirus pandemic. The EPP Group supports new revenue sources for the EU Budget to cover the interests and repayments resulting from the loans contracted for the Recovery Fund.

"Without new sources, citizens will be burdened with taxes or cuts later on, in the post-2027 long-term EU Budget. The European Parliament showed responsibility and worked during the holidays so that not a second was lost. Now, we urge the Council to proceed immediately with the reform of the Union’s revenue system and the ratification process in the 27 Member States. Time is of the essence. We want the Recovery Fund to be available on January 1 2021”, said José Manuel Fernandes, the EPP Group MEP responsible for the EU own resources reform, ahead of today's vote in Parliament's Budgets Committee.

In today's vote, the EPP Group will vote in favour of setting up a binding calendar for additional own resources such as a digital tax on big international tech companies, a levy on plastic, a carbon adjustment mechanism at the EU's external borders, and a tax on financial transactions as new resources to finance the EU budget without further burdening citizens.

“The only solution to finance old and new priorities is for the EU to introduce new sources of revenue. The EPP Group is showing again that ambition and sustainable goals do not need to be mutually exclusive”, stated Siegfried Mureşan MEP, Vice-Chairman of the EPP Group responsible for budgetary issues.

“We must put in place new sources of revenue as early as 2021 to help pay back the costs of the crisis and ensure we can offer more to our citizens. If we are serious about easing the pressure on Member States’ budgets and ensuring better EU budget stability, we must have a binding calendar for additional own resources. The principles are simple: the new incomes must not overburden citizens and must contribute to combating climate change and strengthening the EU's competitiveness and fair competition”, Fernandes and Mureşan concluded.