EU must raise its own revenue to avoid budget cuts - EPP

Romanian MEP and vice chair of the European People's Party group Siegfried Mureșan has said the European Union needs to be able to raise its own revenue to protect against budget cuts.

Ireland, which holds the EU presidency, has suggested cutting €159 billion from the EU's next seven-year budget, protecting money for farmers and poorer regions, while reducing spending on foreign aid, competitiveness programmes and EU administration.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas criticised the proposals, saying they would have major consequences for the EU's "resilience, security, stability, prosperity, competitiveness and migration."

The Government had come under sustained pressure from capitals to either cut the €1.72 trillion budget originally proposed by the European Commission, or to preserve the CAP and cohesion payments headings.

In the event, the Government proposed a 3% cut to farm spending, but a 17% cut to the Global Europe heading.

"Generating own sources of revenues for the European Union would be the solution, which would make the funding of the budget more transparent, more predictable, and more automatic," Mr Mureșan told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.

"We as the European Parliament have three ideas. One, an own resource based on profits made with transactions with cryptocurrencies.

"Secondly, an own resource based on online gaming and gambling, and thirdly, eventually a digital levy."

Mr Mureșan said all ideas need to be on the table to build an ambitious budget which is sufficient without increasing the contributions of member states.

"But not introducing European-owned sources of revenues means that, in the end, budget for research, security and farming would be cut and that certainly would be a mistake," he said.

Mr Mureșan criticised the Irish proposals, adding that cutting the EU budget would weaken the bloc.

"We all agree that security, defence, competitiveness should be the priorities of the Union for the next years. It is in these areas that we have to invest more and if we say that something is important, this also has to be reflected in the budget," he said.

He said the European Commission put forward a proposal to allocate enough resources to security, defence and competitiveness, but which weakened funding for the traditional priorities of farming and regional development.

"We as a European Parliament are proposing a moderate 10% increase to accommodate the new priorities of security, defence and competitiveness without affecting farmers," he said.

"Unfortunately, what the Irish proposal is now doing is [making] further cuts to the initial draft of the Commission, which would leave both the traditional and the new priorities underfunded."

Mr Mureșan said it is vital to agree a budget before the end of this year as upcoming elections in countries across the continent could jeopardise the process.

"Fourteen years ago, when Ireland held the presidency for the last time, the Irish presidency under taoiseach Enda Kenny was instrumental in reaching a seven-year budget deal for the EU.

"So we do count a lot on the experience of the Irish presidency," he said.

"If we don't reach a deal in December [2026], we will see each other again in December 2027.

"And then the risk is very high that not everything will be ready on 1 January [2028]. We would have delays; we want to avoid these."

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