European Council President António Costa is racing to assemble new EU-wide revenue streams to help finance the bloc’s next long-term budget after an inconclusive summit left member states deadlocked over how much they are willing to contribute.

With national governments reluctant to raise their payments to Brussels, Costa is weighing a broad menu of options: taxes on large companies and digital services, levies on tobacco and carbon emissions, and potential charges on online gambling. At this stage of the negotiations, few ideas appear to be off the table.

Follow THE FUTURE on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and Telegram

“To reach an agreement, we need to keep national contributions at a reasonable level, while preserving our ambition and the means to deliver on our common priorities. For this to be possible, it is fundamental to consolidate the work on the new own resources,” Costa said after last week’s European Council summit.

A Search For Revenue Beyond National Budgets

Across his recent tour of European capitals, Costa has returned repeatedly to the same argument: if governments want the European Union to do more, they must also agree on new sources of revenue that flow directly to Brussels.

In Brussels parlance, these are known as “own resources” — a politically sensitive but increasingly central question as the bloc tries to reconcile strained national finances with expanding spending priorities.

EU leaders failed to narrow their differences at last week’s summit, leaving Costa to carry the negotiations into the next phase.

“We had three tests for new own resources. One, that they command unanimity. Two, that they can deliver substantial funds. And three, that they’d be ready, by the 1st of January, 2028,” Thomas Byrne, Ireland’s Minister of State for European Affairs, said when presenting the country’s budget compromise. Read more at Euronews.

The Irish proposal has still drawn criticism from multiple sides, including the European Parliament, which has advanced its own ideas for new taxes on digital services, online gambling and crypto assets that it says could raise as much as €25 billion a year. Read more at Euronews.

“It is clear that the presidency refused to take any decision on the revenue side, proposing only minor adjustments. We are especially very disappointed that none of Parliament’s proposals were taken on board, despite having received positive feedback from many member states,” said MEP Danuše Nerudová of Czechia’s EPP delegation.

Corporate Taxes Remain A Flashpoint

One of the most contested proposals is the Corporate Resource for Europe, or CORE, which many member states view as at odds with the EU’s competitiveness agenda.

The European Commission has defended the plan, arguing that it would apply only to large companies with annual net turnover above €100 million and that the contribution would typically be smaller than the bonuses paid to senior executives.

Even so, Brussels is now examining whether CORE could be paired with a digital levy — another politically difficult measure that could trigger friction with Washington, given that many of the world’s largest technology companies are American.

Under one emerging compromise, the tax would no longer target a single sector. Instead, the threshold would be set high enough to fall primarily on large foreign companies, whether American or Asian.

That shift may become more important as other sources of revenue encounter resistance.

Carbon, Tobacco And Other Contested Options

One proposal under discussion would redirect 30% of revenues from the EU’s Emissions Trading System, or ETS, into the bloc’s budget. The system charges major polluters for their carbon emissions.

Poland has been especially vocal in opposing the diversion of ETS revenues to Brussels. The issue has become politically sensitive enough at home that Warsaw may struggle to accept it as elections approach next year.

The Irish compromise also retained the Tobacco Excise Duty Own Resource, known as TEDOR. Under that plan, member states would pay the EU a 15% call rate on excise duty collected on tobacco products. Governments worry the measure could fuel black-market activity and lower product quality.

Luxembourg is among the strongest opponents. Although the Grand Duchy is a net contributor and usually avoids confrontation over Commission budget proposals, it may have enough political weight to take a hard line on TEDOR.

The Least Controversial Ideas May Matter Most

Not all of the proposals are equally divisive. The most broadly acceptable appears to be a revenue source linked to the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, or CBAM, which places a carbon price on certain imports such as steel and cement so that foreign producers face costs more comparable to those of EU competitors.

A levy based on the amount of electronic waste produced by each member state is also considered relatively uncontroversial, with most of the remaining debate focused on technical design rather than principle.

By contrast, Parliament’s proposed tax on online gambling has met strong resistance from Malta, which hosts much of the EU’s betting industry.

Another idea, a tax on capital gains from crypto assets, is widely viewed as difficult to enforce and likely to generate uncertain revenue because of the market’s volatility.

Greece has also proposed coordinating national 6G spectrum auctions to help finance the EU budget. But member states have long resisted harmonising spectrum allocation, which has traditionally delivered substantial revenue to national treasuries.

“Now is the moment to evaluate the situation and assess the best way forward. We do not exclude taking on board any proposals,” an EU official with direct knowledge of the discussions told Euronews on condition of anonymity.

“We will need to modulate the own resources to better distribute their impact on the member states,” the official added.