The European Taxpayers’ Association (TAE) warns against expanding the EU’s own resources – “A wave of burdens for citizens and businesses looms”

TAE demands: The European Commission must halt the planned expansion of own resources in the next financial framework!

The Commission plans to present a first package for the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2028–2034 on 16 July 2025. A second package containing more detailed technical dossiers is due to follow on 17 September 2025. This concerns the as-yet-to-be-determined volume of the EU financial framework and the composition of the next own resources package.

The first package alone is setting alarm bells ringing at the Taxpayers’ Association, as it explicitly lists the item ‘New Own Resources’. Nevertheless, some proposals from earlier own resources packages dated December 2021 (COM (2021) 566 final) and June 2023 (COM (2023) 330 final) are retained.

The European Commission openly proposes to “anchor the EU’s political priorities more firmly on the revenue side of the EU budget”. Michael Jäger, President of the European Taxpayers’ Association, explains this in simple terms: “As innocuous as the term ‘EU own resources’ may sound, it means nothing other than a higher burden on taxpayers – both individuals and businesses. Money doesn’t grow on trees; someone has to pay for it!” 

There are also other potential sources of own resources, such as a levy on electronic waste or higher taxes on tobacco, alcohol and sugar, to name but a few. And these proposals are by no means insignificant! One example is the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (TED), which, if implemented, will lead to exorbitant price increases due to higher excise duties on tobacco and nicotine products. It is not without reason that we at TAE have voiced our criticism of this. See also our TAE statement of 23 June 2025.

There is no shortage of ‘good reasons’ for new own resources or higher levies. These include strengthening defence capabilities, accelerating the transformation process, boosting competitiveness, combating the effects of climate change, strengthening the single market, protecting public health and other important issues. In the Commission’s view, this requires additional funding. This leads to proposals such as the skimming of corporate profits, which are already taxed but which, in the EU Commission’s view, are apparently taxed in the wrong place or not at a high enough rate.

Or, in the name of improving health, additional or higher taxes are introduced on tobacco, alcohol and sugar. The establishment of a Social Climate Fund is intended to relieve financially weaker households of the additional burdens caused by the introduction of a new emissions trading system for buildings and road transport in the EU. The fact that the EU itself bears some of the blame for these burdens is being glossed over.

A brand-new proposal from the Commission on corporate taxation as part of the ‘Corporate Resource for Europe’ (CORE) programme has now been leaked. In it, the European Commission proposes a turnover-based tax on corporate profits. This would affect all companies with a value of 50 million euros or more – both EU companies and non-EU companies with a permanent establishment in the EU. How on earth could anyone come up with the absurd idea of basing a corporate tax on turnover rather than on profit, which would then also flow into the EU budget? If this were to happen under the guise of strengthening the single market, it would be the joke of the century, says Michael Jäger.

The Association of European Taxpayers is also concerned that the number of supporters of higher EU own resources and a larger EU budget appears to be growing within the European Parliament as well.

What is missing from the whole discussion are proposals for savings and new priorities. “Tax increases must never be a last resort and must not be an end in themselves. Taxpayers are not a self-service shop, neither for the EU nor for individual countries,” said Taxpayers’ Commissioner Michael Jäger.

Even if this makes us unpopular with many in Brussels, we see it as our duty to fight for sustainable finances, and that rules out new or increased EU own resources. “Brussels’ efforts to gradually amass more and more power must be stopped,” the President of the Taxpayers’ Association continued.

We call on the EU, and in particular EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, to put an end to this misguided course of action! 

Download the full press release from TAE.

Brussels/Munich, 15 July 2025