Special issue after fruitful FairTax conference in Vienna
NEWS
Can tax-based own resources represent a sustainability-oriented option for financing the EU budget in the future? If yes, which taxes would offer themselves as own resources for the EU budget? These were the central questions discussed at the FairTax conference ‘‘Options for an EU Tax as an EU Own Resource’’, at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research WIFO, Vienna, on September 19, 2016.
The research conference was organised by FairTax and WIFO, Mendel University in Brno and King’s College London. 29 researchers from a number of EU Member States presented their ideas on reform needs and options for the EU system of own resources and their work on alternative funding options for the EU budget to an audience of more than hundred persons. The conference was rounded up by a policy panel, to create a link from research to policy-makers. The policy panel included Iveta Radičová, former Prime Minister of Slovakia, Hans Jörg Schelling, Federal Minister of Finance of Austria, and Heinz Zourek, former Director General of the European Commission’s Directorate General on Taxes and Customers Union (DG TAXUD). Mario Monti, head of the High-Level Group on Own Resources (HLGOR), sent a video message to underline the importance of a future-oriented discussion about alternative own resources for the EU budget.
In a recent Special issue of Empirica — Journal of European Economics, edited by Alexander Hudetz (WIFO) and FairTax researchers Ann Mumford (King’s College London), Danuse Nerudová (Medel University in Brno) and Margit Schratzenstaller (WIFO), a selection of papers from the conference are included. ‘‘Institutions and the route to reform of the European Union’s budget revenue, 1970–2017’’ by Giacomo Benedetto, ‘‘Analysis and quantification of a new fiscally neutral European tax’’, by Mikulas Luptacik and Peter Luptacik, ‘‘Sustainability-oriented tax-based own resources for the European Union: A European carbon-based flight ticket tax’’ by Alexander Krenek and Margit Schratzenstaller and‘‘Sustainability-oriented future EU funding: A financial transaction tax’’ by Veronika Solilová, Danuse Nerudová and Marian Dobranschi
The discussions at the conference made clear that there are a number of further interesting research questions and areas where further research seems necessary: for example concerning the regional incidence of tax-based own resources or their legal and institutional implementation.
