How must the forthcoming EU budget be designed to meet the requirements of the member countries and the expectations of EU citizens? Will the EU succeed in generating additional revenue with new own resources without burdening national budgets? Can the EU efficiently meet the current challenges with the financial resources made available or will it remain halfway there with its possibilities?
According to Margit Schratzenstaller, for a sustainable EU budget the member countries would have to overcome their net payer or receiver mindsets. The key to this would be to strengthen spending with European added value and to finance the EU more strongly from innovative own resources. In particular, "green" own resources would be suitable to replace a part of the national contributions of the member countries. Potential possibilities would be taxes on air traffic or revenues from border adjustment for the EU Emissions Trading System, which could contribute to achieving the EU's climate targets. For the member countries, the reduction of national contributions would create leeway to reduce other taxes, such as the high taxes on labour.
