The European Commission will consider the idea of pan-EU taxes when it proposes an overhaul of the European Union's budget in two years, a spokesman for the EU executive said today.
"We can consider revenue from various taxes, but it is premature to speculate what solutions will be proposed in the 2008-09 budget review," the spokesman for Budget Commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite said.
"We should strive to have a system that would be linked to national contributions to a lesser degree, a simpler and more transparent system," he said, adding the Commission would propose several options.
A final decision would rest with EU governments and parliament, he said.
Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, outlining his country's programme for its six-month presidency of the EU, earlier called for some form of "Europe tax" to fund the 25-nation bloc.
