The Reform of EU Own Resources under the Next Generation EU Programme: A Suitable Moment for the Introduction of a European Tax?

The EU’s financing system has been accused of opacity as well as lack of transparency and equity because of the “juste retour” policies; in addition the European taxpayer is unaware of contributing to European budget. What is more, tax matters in EU are not meant at the establishment of a supranational tax order but have a mainly “negative” connotation, aimed at guaranteeing the proper functioning of the internal market. Nevertheless, the modern political challenges which the EU is called upon to respond to require the adoption of new spending actions that cannot be accommodated in a quantitatively limited and inadequate budget such as the European one. The Covid-19 pandemic crisis has once again put under the scope the urgent need to change the financing system of the EU. For the first time, the EU is issuing bonds (i.e. coronabonds) in order to finance the Next Generation EU program and the European debt will be repaid with new own resources. Following the Decision n. 2053/2020 and the Interinstitutional Agreement of 16 December 2020, the paper aims to investigate the legal basis of the establishment of European taxes. It will highlight the democratic deficit in the special legislative procedure of adopting the Decision on the system of own resources because of the violation of the “no taxation without representation” principle and the mismatch between the “new” possibility to issue European public debt and the absence of any European tax sovereignty. In a de jure condendo prospective, it is high time to think about a “positive” approach to fiscal matters in order to introduce a European tax which is able to attain European objectives and to carry through its policies according to art. 311 TFEU. In particular, the paper put forward the need to establish a new tax which should link the status of European citizen with his/her ability to pay because, every day, citizens take advantage of the freedoms, goods and services made available by the European juridical construction, without realizing it and without directly contributing to their cost.