In contrast to other wealthy countries like Germany and the Netherlands, France has little appetite for cutting the size of the EU budget, which provides generous subsidies for its powerful farming sector.
Instead, Macron is pushing Brussels to raise more money through EU-wide levies on areas like U.S. tech giants and foreign polluters rather than relying on bigger payments from national governments. As the third most highly indebted country in the EU, Paris has no leeway to drastically increase its contributions.
The Commission’s original tax package — including levies on carbon imports, carbon emissions, electronic waste, tobacco revenues and corporate profits — has run into resistance from governments opposing measures that would disproportionately hit domestic industries.
As negotiations over the next seven-year budget grind on, Macron’s team is canvassing for support across Europe for alternative levies they believe stand a better chance of winning unanimous backing from all 27 member countries, said the officials who were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomacy.
Introducing new EU revenue streams — known in Brussels as “own resources” — is the “sine qua non [essential] condition to approve the budget,” French Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad told reporters earlier this month. “We cannot rely solely on national contributions, no one can afford that.”
Taxes remain one of the most politically sensitive issues in the negotiations, however, making a breakthrough unlikely before the final stages of the talks.