Tax-based Own Resources to Finance the EU Budget

In the current negotiations about the European Union's next medium-term Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for the period 2021 to 2027, the system of own resources financing EU expenditures plays a relatively important role. Currently, the EU budget primarily rests on contributions from Member States (VAT- and GNI-based own resources), whereas "true" own resources have continuously lost importance. In 2017, VAT-based own resources accounted for 12.2 percent of overall EU revenues and GNI-based own resources for 56.6 percent, while traditional own resources contributed the rather small share of 14.7 percent.