On Tuesday 24 October, members of the European Parliament reminded the member states and the Commission of the obligation laid down in Article 311 of the TFEU for the EU to “provide itself with the means necessary to attain its objectives”.
"We have not added a single euro to this budget, even though we have new challenges to face", French MEP Isabelle Thomas (S&D), who authored the resolution, explained at a press dinner on Tuesday evening, alluding to the budge line dedicated to the eurozone referred to by President of the Commission Jean-Claude Juncker and the impact of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU.
“We need finally to break the arbitrary ceiling of only spending 1% of European GDP on the EU budget” – this should instead be at least 1.23%, the European Parliament states in its resolution of the future of the finances of the EU.
The MEPs also stressed that the national contributions represent 80% of the EU's budget, which is a strong imbalance, Thomas said.
The resolution therefore calls for new financing means to be found, based more on own resources. The text does not refer to these specifically, but Thomas argues that they could include a financial transactions tax, a tax on multinationals or a carbon adjustment tax at Europe's borders.
In its 2018 work programme, which was published on Tuesday, the Commission announced a proposal for new own resources.
In addition, the resolution highlights the need to measure the potential of financial instruments as a form of funding on top of aid and subsidies, such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments, but stresses that these are not appropriate for all types of measure and all areas, as not all policies are market-led. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)