EPP wants digital or financial transactions tax back on EU agenda

The centre-right EPP Group will vote in favour of setting up a binding calendar for introducing revenues such as a digital tax on big international tech companies, a levy on plastic, or a tax on financial transactions as new resources to finance the EU budget, it said in a statement yesterday.

“It’s time to reform the EU’s revenue system. This is urgent. It is crucial to set up the new Recovery Fund to help Member States repair the economic and social damage inflicted by the pandemic. This week, we will give the green light required for the Council to proceed immediately with the reform of the Union’s revenue system and the subsequent ratification process in the 27 Member States. We want the Recovery Fund to be available on January 1 2021”, explained José Manuel Fernandes, the EPP Group MEP responsible for the EU own resources reform, ahead of today’s Parliamentary debate in plenary on the so-called new “own resources” for the EU.

“The only solution to finance old and new priorities is for the EU to introduce new own resources. The EPP Group is showing again that ambition and sustainable goals do not need to be mutually exclusive. We need this to pay back the costs of the crisis and ensure we can offer more to our citizens.

The reform of the EU own resources is the only way of not burdening taxpayers and not affecting the future generations with cuts in EU funding”, stated Siegfried Mureşan MEP, Vice-Chairman of the EPP Group responsible for budgetary issues.