TAE on the EU Asset Register: Stop the expropriation! The EU Asset Register would have totalitarian features!

The European elections have barely finished, and the EU is showing its true colours: more rules and more control instead of cutting red tape and strengthening the European economy. Specifically, this concerns the debate over an EU-wide asset register. “What could happen now would have totalitarian overtones,” said Michael Jäger, President of the European Taxpayers’ Association. “We call on Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to bury this project once and for all!”

As a reminder: as early as 2021, the idea of a feasibility study into the introduction of a Europe-wide asset register was discussed. The study subsequently met with significant public opposition, and it seemed as though the issue had been shelved. Far from it! The results of these feasibility studies on the EU asset register are now available, and concrete plans for further implementation are expected in the coming weeks.

Does the European Commission really want to know everything about us, from our wedding ring and the picture on the wall right through to our car and house? Officially, the aim is to achieve greater transparency in the fight against financial crime by creating and establishing a comprehensive register of the valuables owned by all European citizens. Ultimately, however, this will lead to people being monitored, controlled and, ultimately, taxed on their assets.

“Should this actually be implemented, the EU would, by definition, reveal the face of totalitarianism: political rule with the unrestricted right to dispose of those under its control.”

The European Taxpayers’ Association (TAE) expressly warns against this plan and calls on all members of national and federal parliaments, as well as the European Parliament, to resist it! TAE President Michael Jäger: “If the European Commission pursues this plan, it risks losing all credibility. There is a threat of total surveillance, of the ‘transparent citizen’, not to mention the potential for arbitrary action by the authorities. I am convinced that people will not accept such an encroachment on their freedoms and the violation of their data protection rights. If necessary, we will launch a campaign to show this totalitarianism the red card!”

The authorities already have sufficient means to combat organised crime or to seize specific assets, such as those belonging to Russians. An EU asset register is not necessary.

A feasibility study, as the name suggests, serves to identify and highlight the possibilities for an investment. What should/can be recorded? Jewellery and watches, works of art, valuable furniture, expensive clothing, cars, securities, coin collections, cash, property, shares in companies.

What about data protection? What about data security? Who records the assets – the owner or the authorities? Who bears the costs of the valuation? How many thousands of civil servants would be needed for this? What penalties apply for failure to declare or for making false declarations?  

Are the proponents of an EU assets register even aware of how many millions of people would be affected, given that there are over 448 million inhabitants in the EU? Where is the legal impact assessment in this case?

Jäger explains: “Why do we need something like this? Either to take something away or to tax it. Achievement and hard work used to be regarded as virtues in Europe, but now people are being punished for having created something. And that with money that has already been taxed.”

Download the press release as a PDF (EN)

Brussels/Munich, 25 July 2024