Financing the EU Budget : Moving Forward or Backwards?

Gabriele Cipriani presents a historical overview of the EU revenue system, the context for revenue-raising arrangements and the concept of the EU's "own resources." He assesses the current system against issues of simplicity, transparency, equity, and democratic accountability and outlines two possible options for reforming the EU revenue system.

Often described as complex, opaque and unfair, the EU budget financing system is an “unfinished journey.” One of the most critical issues is that EU revenue, drawn from the cashbox of national taxation, remains impalpable to the general public. The nature of the EU as a union of states and their nationals makes the visibility of EU revenue unavoidable. The political sustainability of a move that would put the legitimacy of EU revenue at the forefront of public discussion will depend on the European Commission’s ability to show that EU funds can achieve results that are truly beyond member states’ reach. The value-added tax (VAT) is a natural choice for funding the EU budget, through a dedicated EU VAT rate as part of the national VAT and designed as such in fiscal receipts, whose use as a means for raising EU citizens’ awareness could be encouraged already in the current arrangements.