"We should consider a new transaction tax at European level, a sort of second generation of Tobin Tax," Party of European Socialists President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said during a debate on the EU's priorities for the coming years, organised in Brussels by the Bruegel think-tank.
"It could be useful to fund the EU budget," Rasmussen added. He also relaunched his long-standing call for EU bonds, which could help raise money on financial markets on behalf of the European Commission, thereby reforming the current funding system for the EU budget.
At the moment, the Union's budget is funded from three main sources: a percentage of the Gross National Income (GNI) of each member state, a percentage of the VAT revenue raised by each member state and its own resources, meaning the duties charged on imports of products from outside the internal market.
Co-president of the Green/European Free Alliance group in the European Parliament Daniel Cohn-Bendit openly supported Rasmussen's calls for a so-called Tobin Tax. "The only way out of the crisis is through taxing the circulation of capital," he told the same conference.
But for the Green leader, taxes should also be used to counter climate change. He renewed calls for "ecological fiscality," reigniting the debate around a carbon tax to penalise heavier polluters while encouraging pro-environment attitudes.
The main party in the European Parliament, however, is against these talks. "Taxes are not an EU competence," European People's Party veteran Elmar Brok told the conference.
The current European Commission has on several occasions put on hold the ideas of reforming the EU budget and other ambitious plans without the support of member states.
