The Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU sent a non-paper on potential new own resources for the EU budget to EU Member States on Friday 25 April, ahead of a working group meeting on Tuesday 29 April.
The Presidency has identified five main types of own resources - explained in this 13-page note - which are not recommendations, but “potential ideas that could be considered by Member States as new own resources”.
There are tax ideas on: - EU borders; - large multinationals, particularly the digital giants; - large fortunes; - the financial sector - and putting forward proposals on climate and the environment.
The decisions taken by the Council of the EU will depend in particular on the “time necessary to set them up” and “whether sectoral legislation will be needed”, according to the Polish Presidency. These conditions have been met by the three own resources in the package proposed by the Commission in 2023 (ETS2, CBAM and corporate profits), but they have been blocked due to the lack of unanimity in the Council of the EU.
With this note, the Polish Presidency is showing that the Member States are considering other solutions, while the December 2020 Interinstitutional Agreement on fiscal discipline obliges the EU to adopt new own resources in the context of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027. The working paper compiles ideas submitted by the Bruegel think tank in January 2025 and others proposed by the European Parliament in April 2023.
The next meetings of the Own Resources Working Group will focus on the technical and political feasibility of these ideas. It should be noted that it will be up to the European Commission whether or not to formally propose a package of new own resources.
Border taxes. Among the ideas explored, several have the advantage of being implemented soon (ETIAS), of already being transposed into national legislation in the form of a European directive (OECD Pillar II) or of being discussed (e-commerce).
The European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) is due to come into force in the last quarter of 2026. It will require visa-free travellers aged between 18 and 70 to pay a fee of €7 when submitting an ETIAS application. The revenue generated will be used to finance operating costs, but any surplus revenue may be allocated to the EU budget. 50.5 million passengers could be affected by 2027, according to the Commission.
The EU could base an own resource on the OECD’s Pillar II rule on under-taxed profits. Championed by the Bruegel Institute, this resource would consist of Member States collecting taxes on the profits of foreign groups operating in the EU but locating their profits in low-tax jurisdictions that do not levy the 15% minimum tax.
Proposed by the Commission in May 2023 as part of the customs reform proposal, the abolition of the exemption from customs duties for imports worth less than €150 could also take the form of an own resource based on a “processing fee” for e-commerce imports sent directly to consumers or a “collection cost” for the customs authorities. As the Commission is recommending that this exemption be implemented by 2026, the revenue could be incorporated into the budget as early as 2027, i.e. as part of the current Multiannual Financial Framework.
A withholding tax on dividends, interest and royalties in the EU and an anti-avoidance exit tax are also mentioned. But the former is already applied in some Member States.
Taxing multinationals. Putting in place effective taxation of the largest international companies can enable the EU to obtain a fair share of the revenue they generate on its territory, explains the Presidency.
With the Trump administration pulling out of the OECD project, the Commission could revive its 2018 proposal for a Digital Service Tax (DST) - as French President Emmanuel Macron recently called for (see EUROPE 13594/18). The 2018 proposal was based on a DST of 3%. The think tank CEPS has estimated that a 5% DST would generate €37.5 billion in revenue by 2026 (see EUROPE 13622/22). Some forty MEPs recently called on the Commission to propose a DST (see EUROPE 13594/18).
The document also mentions the introduction of an own resource based on the OECD’s Pillar I, which would ask multinationals to partially reallocate their “exceptional” profits to the countries in which they sell goods or provide services, as well as an own resource based on a levy on large companies in the internal market with sales in excess of €750 million a year. “The levy would be justified by the benefits the large companies derive from the Single Market”, explains the Polish Presidency.
Taxing the wealthy. The Polish Presidency cites a March 2025 report by the EU Tax Observatory, which advocates the introduction of a minimum tax of 2 or 3% on individuals with wealth in excess of €100 million or €1 billion. Such a measure would improve the progressiveness of tax systems.
The Presidency points out that this would require the prior creation of a European register of asset holders and that it would be preferable to limit this taxation to certain categories of assets.
Taxing polluters. The European Parliament’s idea of an own resource based on a tax in the aviation sector is resurfacing. As well as contributing to the EU budget, it would help reduce pollution and CO₂ emissions, according to the Polish Presidency. The EU has a choice between taxing paraffin, taxing flights or taxing passengers. But several Member States already apply a tax on tickets (Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden). To be convincing, an EU own resource would have to complement existing taxes and allow Member States to keep their current revenues.
Tax the financial sector. The European Union has also long been considering a financial transactions tax (FTT) or a financial activities tax (FAT) to ensure that the financial sector makes a fair contribution to the European budget. Although a number of proposals have been made, including an FTT in 2011 and one in 2013 under enhanced cooperation, none has come to fruition to date and alternatives, such as a tax on share buybacks or a FAT, remain under consideration.
A tax on crypto-assets as a new own resource is also being studied by the Commission, supported by recent regulatory advances (MiCA and DAC8) aimed at improving transparency and tax compliance. This tax would make it possible to harmonise the very disparate tax practices of the Member States, although no revenue estimates are yet available due to the high volatility of the market. (Original version in French by Florent Servia)