00:01I'm joined here by Danuse Nerudova, leading MEP on the Multi-Annual Financial Framework,
00:08the EU Long-Term Budget, in particular for the part on own resources, EU-wide taxes.
00:15So, Danuse, you're here to present some new figures from an estimate from the European Parliament.
00:22But first of all, can you start by introducing what are own resources and why they are so important?
00:31Well, own resources are the incomes of EU budget and they are necessary because they are fulfilling the European budget.
00:39And from the previous periods, we have also the debts which we have to repay.
00:45And the debts are like every year 20% of the budget.
00:48That's why we need new own resources to cover the repayment of the previous debt, but also to cover new
00:55priorities we have in European budget.
00:58That's why the new own resources are extremely important to discuss and to find a consent on them
01:07because there is a unanimity on the negotiation of the budget in the Council.
01:12Right. And the Commission came forward with a package proposal of own resources, which has proved rather controversial among member
01:21states.
01:22But the Parliament has also come forward with its own ideas.
01:26So a digital levy, an online gambling tax and a tax on crypto assets.
01:32We have seen in the past weeks an estimate from the European Commission on how much revenue these proposals could
01:42generate.
01:43But the Parliament came forward with its own proposal, which apparently is very different.
01:48Yes, to unblock the situation, as was mentioned, that some of the candidates proposed by the Commission will not fly.
01:57We came with our own candidates and we also provided some estimates.
02:02I would say that the biggest difference between the Commission and Parliament in the estimates are in digital levy and
02:09in gambling tax.
02:10In digital levy, it is caused that in our estimates we are covering much more broader tax base than the
02:18Commission.
02:18We are also taking into account data processing and streaming.
02:24Therefore, we are arriving to the estimate between 13 billion euros to 25 billion euros.
02:31And regarding the gambling tax, we are more optimistic about the growth of this industry.
02:38That's why our estimate is also slightly different from the estimate of the European Commission.
02:43Right. And let's just remember our audience. These are EU-wide taxes meant to finance the next EU budget.
02:52So, for instance, on the digital tax, you are saying it could generate up to 25 billion in revenues for
03:01the next budget.
03:03That is almost five times higher than the Commission estimate. So how did you get to this number?
03:10As I already said, the Commission is calculating this very narrow tax base, which is in fact just for commercials
03:19and the intermediation.
03:20We are calculating this much broader tax base covering also streaming or data processing and all the other services which
03:29are on the table in digital world.
03:32And that's why our estimates are much higher.
03:35Right. So you're saying the Commission is conservative. In your experience with own resources, one could say there may be
03:46your estimates are a bit too optimistic.
03:50What do you make of this?
03:53We have much more estimates and this is the, let's say, very conservative estimate from our own estimates we have.
04:03We are working with different scenarios. Therefore, I think that this is very conservative, even though it's much more higher
04:10than the proposal of the Commission.
04:12But again, the huge difference is the tax base with which we are calculating in our estimates.
04:19Right. And what about the geopolitical aspect? Because we have heard from several member states that they are a bit
04:28skeptical about introducing an EU wide digital levy because of potential reactions from Washington.
04:36The Trump administration has been very aggressive in their trade policy. Do you think there is reason to go ahead
04:47with this digital levy despite the fact it could cause some reactions from the White House?
04:53Of course, because the reactions are coming even without the digital levy. I think that we have a lot of
05:00giants here, which are like a running business all around the Europe, not paying a fair share in Europe.
05:07And this is the tool how to tax those companies, which do not have the same level playing field as
05:14the European ones. So this is the right tool. And on the other hand, this is the right tool how
05:19to raise in sustainable way money to the European budget.
05:24And let's end up with a practical question, because one of the preconditions Brussels asset for new own resources is
05:35also that they need to be operational as of 2028.
05:40Are you confident your proposals would also be immediately available and implementable?
05:50Well, that's of course the question of the European Commission. I think that we are far behind the schedule, even
05:57if or also with the negotiation of the European budget.
06:01I think that, for example, the crypto asset tax can be complicated, but with respect to the digital levy, it's
06:10quite easy to implement such a tax on the EU level.
06:15Yeah. And let's remember that Spain, Italy and France already have digital levy.
