Lamassoure: Changing how EU is funded won’t shift power to Brussels
The EU should in the future have more possibilities to finance itself directly instead of being mostly funded by member states, according to a report to be presented to Parliament on Thursday 12 January. Such a system of own resources was already in place for decades in the past and should be readopted. Report co-author Alain Lamassoure spoke to us ahead of the presentation, pointing out that the proposals would not result in a power shift from national governments to Brussels.
At the moment 80% of the EU’s budget comes from direct contributions by member states based on their gross national income. The EU budget only represents less that 1% of the gross domestic product of all member states and about 94% is reinvested in the countries themselves in areas such as agriculture, infrastructure and research.
Former EU commissioner and Italian prime minister Mario Monti was tasked in 2014 with reviewing how the EU budget could be financed without burdening the member states.
On 12 January, Monti will be at the Parliament to present the final report with proposals on how the EU can in the future create a new system of own resources to finance its budget.
