Own resources: multinational companies and big polluters must help repay the European recovery plan

By adopting today, with a large majority, Valérie Hayer's report on the own resources system, the European Parliament sent a clear political message to the Council: the post-Covid European recovery plan, which the whole EU continues to benefit from, was financed by borrowing and it is not up to the European taxpayer to foot the bill. A prior agreement had been reached for new own resources to replenish the EU budget in order to face the burden of the common debt, and it is time to start negotiations to implement it.

The report recommends the introduction of three new own resources: 25% of the revenue from the new Emissions Trading System (ETS), 100% (and not 75% as envisaged by the European Commission) of the revenue from the new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and a 15% levy on residual revenue reallocated to Member States under the agreement reached at the OECD on the taxation of multinationals. In this regard, the report urges the Commission to propose a new tax on digital giants if the OECD agreement is not fully operational by the end of 2023. This report is also a reminder of Parliament's intransigent position in the ongoing trilogues on the ETS and the CBAM.

Valérie HAYER (Renaissance, France), parliamentary rapporteur for the system of own resources and coordinator of Renew Europe within the Parliamentary Committee on Budgets (BUDG), declared :

"The recovery plan, we had backed it up with a second plan. A repayment plan. In 2021, we had decided, collectively, that major polluters, importers of foreign CO2, large multinationals, which do not pay their fair share of tax, financial speculators, would contribute to this reimbursement. And it is not only a question of budget, but also and above all of fiscal and social justice. This common debt, we will have to repay it from 2028. That is to say in 5 years. The European Parliament is now assuming its responsibilities. I urge the Council to honour our commitments as policy makers. The credibility of the EU with investors depends on it”.