The current discussion about the EU budget after the Brexit strongly focuses on its future volume and the effects on national
contributions. At the same time, however, the Brexit offers a unique opportunity for fundamental sustainability-oriented structural
reforms of the EU budget. To create more European value added with a focus on sustainability, overall agricultural expenditures
should be reduced and greened; cohesion funds should be shifted more effectively from richer to poorer
Member States and coupled more strongly to climate and employment goals as well as a pro-active migration and integration
policy; and expenditures for sustainability-oriented research and infrastructure should be increased.
By replacing national EU contributions with sustainability-oriented tax-based own resources like an EU-wide carbon-based flight
ticket tax, a net wealth tax, a financial transactions tax and a Common (Consolidated) Corporate Tax Base, the EU system of
own resources can support central EU goals. Whether the Brexit is really able to support future-oriented reforms of the EU
budget will eventually depend on how Member States will adapt to the expected revenue shortfall of 10 billion annually:
by increasing national contributions or introducing additional revenue sources; by expenditure cuts; or by a combination of
these two options. Substituting a substantial share of national contributions by sustainability-oriented tax-based own resources
may act as a catalyst to secure the agreement of net contributor countries to uphold the current expenditure level in exchange
for far-reaching reforms of the expenditure structure.
Link to full article: Austrian Society for European Politics