MEPs dream of a European tax

Assembled on 20 October to approve theEU budget 2011, MEP’s all agreed on one thing: to review the funding of EU institutions. The subject is "almost taboo in member states themselves, since it hasn’t been touched on since the Fontainebleau summit in 1984, when Margaret Thatcher rammed through a discount for the British contribution to the common fund”, explainsLes Echos. MEPs want fresh funding of their own, and are threatening the EU 27 to naysay the budget 2011 if member states refuse to discuss the matter. As parliament sees it, "you can’t keep heaping new tasks on the EU (climate, energy, space programme, setting up a big external relations agency, fighting poverty…) without spending an extra cent”. Specifically, MEPs bemoan shortfalls in customs duties in the wake of liberalised cross-border trade. So they’re ogling other moneymakers, reports the business daily: particularly a Europe-wide VAT or a European tax on corporate profits. “The capitals didn’t wait long to weigh in,” wraps up Les Echos: "the answer is no. No new European taxes, London shot back right away.”