“All the Member States will find it in their interest to see these own resources introduced!” “ : Wednesday 22 December, the Commissioner responsible for the budget, the Austrian Johannes Hahn, showed himself to be sure of himself when presenting a basket of three new own resources for the European Union (EU).
300 billion euros in subsidies
Own resources are funds that come directly to the EU budget, without coming from national wallets. The new revenues under study would be used to repay the 300 billion euros in subsidies granted to Member States to fight against Covid-19 and which will have to be repaid by 2058. This is what these should be used for. own resources.
According to the Commission, these “new generation” own resources must come from the carbon border adjustment mechanism, the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS), and profits reallocated to States from very large companies. multinationals as part of the global tax agreement reached at the OECD in October.
17 billion per year
In total, according to the calculations of the EU executive, these new sources of revenue are expected to generate on average up to 17 billion euros per year for the EU budget. In detail, a contribution of 12 billion euros per year on average is expected through the ETS – which is also likely to evolve in order to cover, in addition to traditional sectors such as industry or electricity , road transport and construction.
The carbon border adjustment mechanism should earn it 1 billion euros per year. This new tool (still under negotiation) aims to tax EU imports in the steel, aluminum, cement, fertilizer and electricity sectors. Finally, if the “pillar 1” of the agreement at the OECD on the taxation of multinationals is finalized, the new own resource which could result from it would bring in between 2.5 and 4 billion euros per year for the EU. “These proposals contradict all the fake news claiming that citizens will pay for the stimulus package”, says MEP Valérie Hayer (Renew Europe).
Find an agreement
It is still necessary to obtain the unanimous agreement of the Twenty-Seven. It is not won: if France is in favor of the introduction of new own resources, Germany has long been against. The new Chancellor Olaf Scholz, he seems rather favorable. But the “frugal” states, the Netherlands in the lead, which had put the brakes on when the recovery plan was put in place, see these own resources as a deepening of the integration of the EU, which they do not necessarily want. .
→ READ. European recovery plan: the “frugal” on the brake
However, without new own resources, the reimbursement of the recovery plan risks rhyme with an increase in national contributions to the European budget, or with cuts in Community programs such as Erasmus (for education) or Horizon Europe (for research ). A scenario that the European Commission wants to avoid.
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