The Committee on Budgets (BUDG) holds a public hearing on the new own resources that are expected to be proposed in the second quarter of 2021, and which are meant to help repay the debt of the COVID-19 economic rebound stimulus fund, Next Generation EU. Atmosphere shots of the Public hearing and statements by José Manuel FERNANDES (EPP, PT) and Valérie HAYER (Renew, FR), co-rapporteurs

Brussels

statement

meeting

public hearing

Committee on Budgets

own resources (T)

FERNANDES, José Manuel (EPP, PT)

Multiannual financial framework 2021-2027 (T)

HAYER, Valérie (Renew, FR)

Coronavirus outbreak (T)

Recovery plan for Europe (T)

recovery and resilience facility (T)

Financing the EU budget - new own resources and possible other revenue (17/03/2021): atmosphere shots of the public hearing and statements by José Manuel FERNANDES (EPP, PT) and Valérie HAYER (Renew, FR), co-rapporteurs

Title: Financing the EU budget - new own resources and possible other revenue: atmosphere shots of the public hearing and statements by Jos&#233; Manuel FERNANDES (EPP, PT) and Val&#233;rie HAYER (Renew, FR), co-rapporteurs

SOUNDBITE (English), Val&#233;rie HAYER (Renew, FR), Co-rapporteur, There are three of them that all contribute to the green and digital transition. The first one is the digital levy. It's aimed at taxing the digital giants such as Google, Facebook and Ali Baba or Netflix, for example, that has an exponential increase of their revenue and came out on top thanks to the pandemic. And yet they currently pay less taxes than SMEs. This is a nonsense that will no longer be tolerated. I think in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Val&eacute;rie HAYER (Renew, FR), Co-rapporteur, The second one is the carbon border adjustment mechanism. With that mechanism, we target importers of goods produced in third countries and we make sure they are treated the same way as our European companies.

SOUNDBITE (English), Val&eacute;rie HAYER (Renew, FR), Co-rapporteur, The third one is actually already implemented and known as the carbon market. Our goal here is to make polluters pay. Today, they buy the right to pollute and if they do less than expected, they are allowed to sell this quote. That money should now enter in in the European budget instead of national coffers, as it is the case today. That means EU policy,EU revenues. That way we would both earn money and encourage companies to to pollute less in accordance with our environmental goals.

SOUNDBITE (English), Val&eacute;rie HAYER (Renew, FR), Co-rapporteur, In the final agreement we indeed went for a very ambitious and binding calendar and it has so far been respected with those three new own resources.

SOUNDBITE (French), Jos&#233; Manuel FERNANDES (EPP, PT), Co-rapporteur, We need to pay the &euro;750 billion debt for the Next Generation EU. And we cannot charge citizens and we have the possibility of having a basket of new own resources, which is sufficient for the payment of the debt. From 2021 2027 the impact of debt payment is small, 0,0 1% of the annual budget. That means 12.9 billion euros. But after 2027, it's 10% of the budget, 15 billion annually. And we cannot reduce the programs and funds in the budget. Nor can we ask citizens to pay more. The principle is simple, those who do not pay, they have to pay.

SOUNDBITE (French), Jos&eacute; Manuel FERNANDES (EPP, PT), Co-rapporteur, The schedule we have is binding. There are many ministers they have not yet understood that the introduction of own resources is in the inter-institutional agreement, and it is binding.

Cutaways, of Jose-Manuel FERNANDES discussing with colleague outside meeting room, 4 shots