To critics, the cumulative effect of regulatory expansion, centralized borrowing and proposals for permanent ‘own resources’ signals a steady rebalancing of power toward the center. The European Union was never intended to become the United States of Europe through incremental fiscal evolution. It was constructed as a union of member states cooperating within defined competences.
Taxation is not merely a revenue mechanism. It is the foundation of democratic accountability. National parliaments debate budgets, justify expenditures and face voters. When fiscal authority migrates upward, accountability chains grow longer and more opaque.
Supporters of EU-level taxation argue that shared challenges require shared resources. Climate transition, defense coordination, industrial competitiveness and geopolitical resilience demand investment beyond the scale of individual member states. Fragmentation, they warn, would weaken Europe in a world of continental powers.
There is merit in acknowledging those pressures. Yet, integration must follow consent, not precede it.
The current trajectory risks creating fiscal facts before a political mandate is secured. Joint debt was justified as temporary. ‘Own resources’ were presented as targeted. Yet the logic of institutional development suggests permanence. Once established, revenue streams rarely disappear.
This is where the David and Goliath metaphor resonates.