The EU could force ordinary citizens to pay more into the Brussels bloc amid a financial crisis. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo suggested that the EU could impose more bloc-wide taxes on citizens, as Brussels struggles for money.
Brussels is currently scrambling to fill the EU’s €1.2trillion (£1.03bn) budget for 2021-2027.
The European Commission originally requested an additional €66billion (£57bn) in extra money from member-states.
However, after a furious row at the last European Council meeting in December, this figure was reduced to €21billion (£18bn).
The £18bn demand would attempt to cover the higher borrowing costs on the bloc’s post-pandemic cash, as well as future aid to war-torn Ukraine.
Mr De Croo’s country took the helm of the Council of the EU on January 1.
He told Politico that the EU needed “more of its own money”.
However, the Belgian leader also admitted that Brussels is hitting the limits of what it can ask national governments to contribute to finance their priorities.
The Belgian PM said: “With every major challenge we face, the European population, even the more Euroskeptic ones, look to Europe to solve those challenges because countries alone cannot do it.
“If you want to answer those calls, you’re going to have to rearrange your priorities, which for us inevitably leads to a discussion: Where does the money come from?”
In 2021 Brussels introduced an EU-wide plastic tax to help raise around €6 billion (£5.1bn) per year into the coffers of the European Commission.
Pro-EU MEP Guy Verhofstadt heralded the tax idea, saying: “Indeed, need to finance EU totally differently: new own resources democratically decided instead of contributions by MS & veto’s!”
There is currently a push from the European Parliament for EU-wide taxes on carbon emissions and the profits of multinationals, which could generate around €36 billion (£31bn) annually.
However, there is concern that more taxes on EU citizens could spark a backlash ahead of the EU elections in June, when more than 400 million people across the continent head to the polls.
Anti-EU Geert Wilders recently won the elections in the Netherlands while Marine Le Pen is the current favourite to become next French President.
Sweden Democrats often discuss a possible future Swexit, while in Mr Verhofstadt’s Belgium, Vlaams Belang, a Eurosceptic party, has risen to 25 percent in the polls.
