The Commission, among other items, presented three new taxes targeting electric waste, tobacco products and high-turnover companies to repay the post-Covid debt, which is estimated to cost €25 to €30 billion per year.
“We also do not support the additional taxation of companies proposed by the EU Commission,” Kornelius said in Berlin.
“We must maintain the Commission’s reform approach and the budget’s focus on new priorities. This course is the right one to make Europe strong for the future,” he added.
Merz has repeatedly emphasized that, from Berlin’s point of view, EU spending must become more efficient instead of increasing the overall pot of cash.
“We [must] reorganize the priorities in the European budget,” the conservative leader said late last month. “Additional tasks cannot always be linked to additional expenditure … and that is the difficult task we now face.”
The budget needs the go-ahead from all EU countries and the European Parliament by 2027.