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The European Union is embarking on the complex and critical task of planning its financial future, with negotiations now underway for its next seven-year budget covering 2028 to 2034. This massive fiscal framework, projected to be around €2 trillion, will define the bloc’s ability to fund priorities like competitiveness, global action, and scientific research through programs like Horizon Europe. A central and contentious challenge in these discussions is identifying new, sustainable revenue streams to fund these ambitions. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is therefore proposing a suite of novel taxes targeting the modern, digitalized economy. According to an internal document obtained by Euronews, these proposed levies on digital services, online gambling, and crypto transactions could collectively generate nearly €11 billion in additional annual income for the EU budget, providing a significant boost to its financial autonomy and capacity.
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Among the proposed new “own resources,” the tax on the online gambling sector appears to be gaining the most immediate, though cautious, traction among national governments. The Commission estimates that a modest 3% levy on the net turnover of online betting operators could yield approximately €1.9 billion per year. The design details are still fluid, with options ranging from a tax on operator revenues to a charge indirectly applied to players based on their activity levels. However, the path is not smooth. The industry lacks a common EU-wide definition and tax approach, creating complexity. Furthermore, fierce opposition is anticipated from Malta, a member state that serves as the headquarters for a significant portion of Europe’s online gambling companies and whose economy benefits considerably from the sector.
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The proposal for a digital levy draws on the experience of pioneering member states like Spain, France, and Italy, which already tax digital services. The Commission projects that an EU-wide version could raise about €5 billion annually. The design would likely target the net turnover from specific activities—such as digital advertising, online intermediation, and data monetization—for large tech companies exceeding both national and global revenue thresholds (the latter set at €750 million). This proposal, however, wades into a long-standing and difficult debate. It overlaps with a more ambitious and controversial idea from the Commission for a broader corporate tax reform (CORE), which has faced stiff resistance from several member states wary of ceding more fiscal sovereignty to Brussels or expanding corporate tax burdens.
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The most speculative, yet potentially lucrative, proposal concerns the volatile world of crypto assets. The Commission’s document presents two possible models: a small transaction tax of 0.1% on trade values, which could generate between €3 and €4 billion yearly, or a tax on capital gains from crypto investments, estimated to bring in €1 to €2.4 billion. The uncertainty here is high, by the Commission’s own admission. The extreme price swings in crypto markets make revenue forecasting difficult, and there are significant technical hurdles in determining the location of users for tax collection purposes. Nevertheless, the proposal signals the EU’s intent to ensure that emerging and increasingly mainstream financial activities contribute their fair share to the common budget.
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These tax proposals are not merely technical exercises in revenue collection; they are intrinsically linked to the EU’s political and strategic future. The new budget must account for major spending innovations, such as new funds for competitiveness and a reformed system for distributing regional and agricultural aid through tailored national plans. Crucially, it must also continue to cover the substantial costs of repaying the bloc’s landmark €800 billion NextGenerationEU recovery fund, launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As European Commissioner for Budget, Johannes Hahn, has emphasized, progress on these new own resources is essential for achieving an “ambitious” overall budget. The proposed taxes represent an effort to align the EU’s income with a 21st-century economic reality dominated by digital giants, online platforms, and new asset classes.
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The road to a final agreement by the expected deadline of late 2026 remains long and fraught with diplomatic hurdles. Every proposal must overcome the monumental challenge of unanimous approval from all 27 member states, each with its own domestic economic interests and political sensitivities. While the gambling tax has found some early supporters and the digital levy builds on existing national models, the broader resistance to new EU-level taxation is a powerful force. The coming months of negotiation will involve tough trade-offs, compromises, and careful calibration of these proposals. The outcome will ultimately reveal not just the EU’s financial blueprint for the latter half of this decade, but also the depth of its member states’ commitment to forging a fiscally integrated and resilient union.
