Activities of Dimitrios PAPADIMOULIS related to 2022/2172(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on own resources: a new start for EU finances, a new start for Europe
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on own resources: a new start for EU finances, a new start for Europe
Amendments (34)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Recital -A (new)
Recital -A (new)
-A. whereas, according to Article 311 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Union shall provide itself with the means necessary to attain its objectives and carry through its policies; whereas, according to the same Article, without prejudice to other revenue, the budget shall be financed wholly from own resources;
Amendment 3 #
-A a. whereas the Parliament, the Council and the Commission have agreed upon a legally binding roadmap, included in the Interinstitutional Agreement of December 2020, for the introduction of new own resources for the 2021-2027 period; whereas the Institutions have committed to sincere and transparent cooperation and work towards the implementation of the roadmap;
Amendment 10 #
B. whereas the second basket of new own resources cshould include a financial transaction tax and a financial contribution linked to the corporate sector or a new common corporate tax base;
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Declares that EU finances are going through a critical period where a lack of reform would have highly detrimental effects on the future of EU policies and objectives and the trust of Europeans and investors in the Union;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
B a. whereas European citizens in the Conference on the Future of Europe have proposed strengthening the Union budget through new own resources;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Stresses the crucial and growing importance of the EU budget in delivering on virtually all of the EU’s key policy objectives, its flagship programmes and its crisis intervention; underlines the multiple challenges the EU is facing such as building up its strategic autonomy, promoting the green and digital transitions leaving no one behind, ending its reliance upon Russian fossil fuels, completing the health union and the energy union and financing important common projects such as defence, civil protection and space, implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights and financing important common projects; considers that all new EU policies and challenges must involve new means and extra resources; reiterates, in this regard, that robust, reliable and resilient financing of the EU budget requires a diversified and enlarged set of own resources; is convinced that there is huge potential in a well-designed reform of the EU own resources not only for strengthening the financing of its budgetary needs, but also for boosting its policy outputs, improving the fiscal equilibrium between the EU and Member States and adding value to overall public finance;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that, according to the legally binding roadmap in the Interinstitutional Agreement of December 2020, the Commission neis requireds to put forward a proposal for the second basket of new own resources by June 2024; recalls its position that the Commission present such a proposal by the end of 2023; notes the relevant commitment by the Commission and expects this commitment to be duly fulfilled;
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Recalls that the Union is obliged to repay the principal and interest of the funds borrowed under the EU Recovery Plan; recalls, in this regard, that the EU institutions adopted a ‘repayment plan’ in the form of a legally binding interinstitutional agreement establishing a roadmap for the introduction of new own resources to cover in full the borrowing costs; recalls, in this context, that the triple- AAA rating of the EU as a quasi-sovereign borrower depends, inter alia, on the reliability of the institutions’ following up on their political commitment to introduce new own resources;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. NoteRegrets that none of the new own resources from the first basket are yet in place; recalls that the Commission should have presented its proposal by June 2021 and that the Council should have deliberated on these new own resources by 1 July 2022 at the latest in view of their introduction by 1 January 2023; stresses the need to move more swiftly and decisively and urges the Council to approve the first basket of own resources without further delay;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Underlines that new own resources are urgently needed in order to ensure sufficient resources for NGEU debt repayments and to avoid any cuts to Union programmes, which would undermine the very purpose and long- term perspective of the recovery plan; notes with great concern the sharp rises in inflation and interest rates, which have increased significantly the costs of funding and that higher than programmed refinancing costs are already having an impact on the EU budget;
Amendment 37 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Considers that these new own resources are necessary to avoid the next generation of Europeans paying the price for the repayment of the principal and the interest of the funds borrowed under NGEU, either through an increased burden on taxpayers or via cuts in regular EU programmes directly affecting beneficiaries and project-holders; notes the legitimate demand by Europeans for more social and tax justice; warns against any attempt to reduce funding for ordinary EU policies to make space for the repayment of EU debt, as this would endanger long-term EU goals, such as economic convergence, social and territorial convergence, gender equality, research and innovation or the green and digital transitions;
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Paragraph 2 b (new)
Amendment 42 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Is concerned that the first basket of own resources will not generate the revenues expected for several reasons; observes further that beyond the funding needed for NextGenerationEU, the Union mayis also in urgent need of additional resources to assist Ukraine financially and to further mitigate the social and economic impact of Russia’s war against Ukraine on the Union, its Member States and its people;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Regrets that the current way in which the EU budget is financed subjects it to national budgetary constraints, thus leading to undue downward pressure on its – already modest – overall volume and a ‘juste retour’ logic that does not reflect the solidarity principle at the core of EU integration; believes that this structure is one of the main reasons preventing the EU from fulfilling all its tasks and commitments effectively; is very concerned by the slow progress in the modernisation of the own resources system since the creation of the European Communities;
Amendment 47 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Underlines that the introduction of new own resources will strengthen the fiscal autonomy and independence of the EU and achieve lasting benefits, not only in delivering EU policies but also ensuring the Union’s standing as a credible and smart debt issuer;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. CRegrets that the Council has yet to approve the first basket of new own resources; calls on the Member States in the Council to adopt, as soon as possible,swiftly adopt the new own resources from the first package of 14 December 2021; worries, however, that the amounts generated by the new own resources will not be sufficient to cover all NGEU repayments and borrowing costs; calls, therefore, on the Commission to come forward with the next batch of proposals in the third quarter of 2023 at the latest; insists that these proposals take into account the priorities of the European Parliament as outlined in here;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Concludes that the second basket of own resources therefore needs to be ambitious and yield sufficient revenues commensurate with the Union’sand adequate for the Union’s increasing needs;
Amendment 60 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Believes that the EU revenue side should be used strategically to create incentives for promorte social and tax justice; underlines that green own resources should be complemented by tax-based own resources from the corporate sector for reasons of sufficiency, fiscal equivalence (those who benefit from the EU and its open markets should also contribute their fair share to its financing) and overall distributional fairness among Member States and sectors;
Amendment 62 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Calls on the Commission to consiincluder, forin its second basket of own resources, an EU-wide financial transaction tax based on its 2011 model, which should yield around EUR 41.5 billion per year;
Amendment 73 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Calls on the Commission, if by the end of 2023 the process of ratification of the OECD/G20 (IF) Pillar I Agreement has not started in a critical mass of countries as defined by the Multilateral Convention, to propose a digital levy in order to generate revenues by 2026;
Amendment 75 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 4
Subheading 4
Financial servicesTransaction Tax (FTT)
Amendment 77 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Invites the Commission and the Member States, in view of the recent economic challenges, to think beyond the Interinstitutional Agreement and to consider additional new, genuine and innovative own resources, such as a wealth tax, an EU-wide aviation tax for intra- European commercial flights or an own resource based on the revision of the Energy Taxation Directive2 ; _________________ 2 Commission proposal for a Council directive restructuring the Union framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity (COM(2021)0563).
Amendment 80 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Acknowledges with regret that any prospectRegrets the lack of progress for the introduction of a financial transaction tax under enhanced cooperation have faded away in the course of recent years; insists, nevertheless,; insists that thea financial sector be encompassed by the corporate or single market-based own resource initiative, ideally within the BEFIT contexttransaction tax should be part of the EU’s own resources system;
Amendment 83 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 a (new)
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Recalls that the own resources arrangements should be guided by the overall objectives of simplicity, transparency and equity; reiterates its position that rebates and other correction mechanisms should be abolished;
Amendment 85 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13 a. Recalls the Commission declaration, in the framework of the MFF and Own Resources negotiations, that ‘if there is no agreement by end of 2022, the Commission will, based on impact assessments, propose a new own resource, based on a new Financial Transaction Tax’;
Amendment 86 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 8 b (new)
Paragraph 8 b (new)
8 b. Underlines the importance of a central fiscal capacity and the necessity to establish an additional permanent special instrument over and above the MFF ceilings, accompanied by a commensurate raising of the own resources ceilings, so that the EU can sufficiently finance Union policies and programmes in areas with clear European added value and so that the Union budget can better adapt and quickly react to crises and their social and economic consequences;
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 b (new)
Paragraph 13 b (new)
13 b. Calls therefore on the Commission to come forward with an ambitious proposal for a new Financial Transaction Tax in its proposal for a second basket of new own resources;
Amendment 93 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 4 a (new)
Subheading 4 a (new)
EU wealth tax
Amendment 94 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 c (new)
Paragraph 13 c (new)
13 c. Underlines the significant income and wealth inequalities across the Union; deplores the over-concentration of wealth in the hands of the richest 1% of the EU population; points to the importance of progressive forms of taxation in fighting such inequalities and promoting social, economic and tax fairness; suggests the introduction of a European wealth tax, whose revenues would flow into the European budget as a new own resource;
Amendment 95 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 4 b (new)
Subheading 4 b (new)
Windfall tax
Amendment 96 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 d (new)
Paragraph 13 d (new)
13 d. Deplores that energy companies and multinational companies in other sectors have made record windfall profits at the expense of households and businesses in the EU; underlines that such profits need to be taxed in order to provide additional revenue for the EU to promote its policies and objectives; calls for the establishment of a permanent windfall tax for all companies making windfall profits;
Amendment 157 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 32
Paragraph 32
32. Recognises the merits of the GNI- based own resource in view of its reliable balancing function but stresses that the over-dependence of the EU budget on GNI-based contributions is outdated; notes the enduring predominance of the share of national contributions in the own resources system, now amounting to approximately 80 %; points out the modest share of traditional and genuine own resources, especially customs duties, which stands at around 13 % today;
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34
Paragraph 34
34. Recalls its consultative powers regarding the Own Resources Decision; is convinced thatthat following the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe, the Parliament has already submitted to the Council proposals for the amendment of the Treaties under the ordinary revision procedure laid down in Article 48 TEU, including in order to provide the Parliament with full co-decision rights on the EU budget; is convinced that the promotion of the Community method and a more pronounced role of the European Parliament as the legislative and budgetary authority in the underlying legislation, as well as in the annual procedure concerning the revenue side and debt levels, cwould enhance the visibility, legitimacy and accountability of EU public finance; calls for the decision laying down the provisions relating to the system of own resources of the Union and the implementing measures for that system to be adopted by the European Parliament and the Council acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure;
Amendment 164 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 34 a (new)
Paragraph 34 a (new)
34 a. Recalls that the own resources arrangements should be guided by the overall objectives of simplicity, transparency and equity; reiterates its position that rebates and other correction mechanisms should be abolished;