Next week, the EU Commission will present its proposal for the EU’s next long-term budget, and it will include suggestions for raising new own resources.
This is stated by EU Commissioner for Budget Piotr Serafin in the EU Parliament in Strasbourg.
“We know very well that the debate about own resources has never been easy. But this time we cannot avoid the debate. For we need more resources,” says Piotr Serafin.
He points out that the next long-term budget will initially be burdened by enormous repayments on the common debt that EU countries have incurred during the coronavirus pandemic.
The EU budget must specifically be able to pay 25 billion euros a year in interest and repayments on the EU program Next Generation EU, which was intended to help EU countries recover after the pandemic.
This corresponds to about 185 billion kroner a year.
However, EU countries have traditionally been reluctant to open up for new own resources, as this would effectively mean that the EU Commission begins to collect, for example, customs duties or taxes to get its own funds in the coffers.
According to Piotr Serafin, the EU Commission has tried to get EU countries to cough up more money for the pressured budget. But this has not been successful.
“EU countries have been hesitant to increase national contributions. Therefore, we need to find a balance of new revenues,” says Piotr Serafin.
He directly links the need to the debt repayments on the budget:
“National budgets are under pressure, and from 2028 onwards, there will be 25 billion euros in the budget that will be obligations in the form of loans to Next Generation EU.”
“Here, we from the EU Commission have looked more closely at the revenue side. I would like to ask for your support in these efforts,” says Piotr Serafin, addressing the EU Parliament.
He does not elaborate on which revenue sources the EU Commission is specifically looking at. But the announcement raises concerns at Dansk Industri.
“We do not yet know what Serafin means by new own resources, but we are skeptical,” says DI’s Head of European Policy, Rikke Wetendorff Nørgaard.
She fears that the EU Commission will come up with new taxes that could harm competitiveness.
“If the EU’s budget is to be increased, the most economically responsible approach is to increase the contributions of member states.”
“Own resources risk meaning business-damaging taxes. And it would be like shooting oneself in the foot if one finances the EU’s budget with taxes that weaken the EU’s growth and competitiveness,” says Rikke Wetendorff Nørgaard.
Denmark has just prioritized competitiveness as one of the two main priorities for the Danish EU presidency, along with defense.
This comes after the so-called Draghi report, commissioned by the EU Commission, pointed out that the EU is falling behind in global competition, particularly against the USA and China.
DI believes that the EU Commission should look for savings in the budget instead of new revenues.
“There are plenty of opportunities to first and foremost clean up the EU’s budget as it stands today, before we talk about new revenues and the size of the budget,” says Rikke Wetendorff Nørgaard.
/ritzau/
