The EU plans a flurry of new taxes to fund its €2 trillion 2028-2034 budget

The European Union is looking to secure a €2 trillion budget for 2028-2034. To achieve this, Brussels bureaucrats are proposing a wave of new taxes: carbon, e-waste, tobacco, corporate, online gaming, and, of course, cryptocurrencies. This tax inflation raises concerns, as Europeans are already among the most heavily taxed people in the world. The article The EU plans a flurry of new taxes to fund its €2 trillion 2028-2034 budget appeared first on Cryptoast.

The European Commission aims to structure an ambitious multi-year budget of €2 trillion for the 2028-2034 period. Faced with the categorical refusal of "frugal" states to increase their national contributions, Brussels is exploring the creation of new own resources to fund strategic sectors such as defense, innovation, and the green transition. However, this strategy raises significant diplomatic and economic challenges, as several capitals firmly oppose what they perceive as excessive fiscal overlapping in an environment of already record-high tax pressure.

Among the avenues under consideration, five major levers have been identified, including taxes on electronic waste, carbon transactions, and the turnover of large corporations. Although France is pushing for an ambitious goal of €60 billion in additional annual revenue, negotiations are stalling. Only measures targeting waste and carbon adjustment seem to have sufficient consensus, while other projects, deemed too burdensome for already strained economies, are meeting growing resistance.

The digital assets sector is also prominent in parliamentary discussions, with proposals to introduce a tax on capital gains or the total volume of crypto transactions. These proposals, which could generate several billion euros over the budget cycle, are nonetheless running into major technical obstacles. The decentralized nature of networks and the rise of layer-two solutions, such as the Lightning Network, make tax monitoring and collection extremely complex, not to mention the veto power held by nations historically favorable to cryptocurrencies.

Beyond technical feasibility, these projects crystallize deep concerns regarding European competitiveness. With France and several other EU countries already posting some of the highest tax-to-GDP ratios in the world, the prospect of adding an EU-wide tax layer on top of existing national bases is unsettling investors. This situation is fueling distrust toward sovereign debt and reinforcing the growing interest among individuals in alternative assets like Bitcoin, which some view as a hedge against current fiscal and macroeconomic instability.