Why fiscal justice should be reinstalled through European taxes that the citizens will support : a proposal

POIARES PESSOA MADURO, Luis Miguel, WOŹNIAKOWSKI, Tomasz P., Why fiscal justice should be reinstalled through European taxes that the citizens will support : a proposal, STG Policy Briefs, 2020/07 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/69379

Abstract

We must eliminate a blind spot in citizens’ minds, who tend to think “the more money for the EU, the less for our countries”. By demonstrating the importance of the own source of EU revenue, rather than focusing solely on the size of its budget, we can understand that financing the EU is not such a ‘zero-sum’ game. Therefore, we use the term ‘fiscalization’1 which implies the power to tax, rather than ambiguous terms such as ‘Eurozone budget’. History of other multilevel systems of government, such as the United States, teaches us that some types of taxes can only be effectively - and justly - levied by the highest level of government, the revenue from which could then be used for the common goods. Importantly, our data, based on a YouGov survey conducted in 11 member states, shows that the citizens support the introduction of European taxes, such as a tax on large internet companies. Such EU taxation could reinstall the tax justice, provide more revenues for delivering EU-wide common goods and to make the Economic and Monetary Union more resilient.

Publisher

European University Institute

Research Projects

Taming the Leviathan? Legal and Political Accountability in 'Post-Crisis' EU Economic Governance

European Commission, 716923

Sponsorship and Funder Information

European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 716923).

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