Polish Minister of Finance and Regional Policy Katarzyna Pelczynska-Nałec has proposed introducing a fee for joining the European Union (EU), Euractiv reports.
Media sources highlight the unstable budget situation in the bloc's countries and the urgent need to find new sources of income. The option of increasing contributions for EU member states is also being considered.
Polish minister calls for "comprehensive investment policy" in Europe She also proposed the introduction of a digital tax and the creation of a common investment fund as an option to replenish the budget.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump said that he would ask NATO member states to increase defense spending to five percent of GDP. According to him, such a measure for the development of the North Atlantic Alliance “should have been taken a long time ago“.
EU member states must increase defense spending to keep up with the threats facing the continent, warned the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaia Kallas, the BBC reported, quoted by BTA.
Kallas, who was the prime minister of Estonia until July 2024, said that “every euro spent on schools, healthcare and social benefits [is] vulnerable“ if the bloc does not maintain strong defense.
US President Donald Trump was right to criticize Europe's spending, which averages 1.9%, she added.
Kallas also pointed out that Russia spends 9% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defense and said Europe's spending is "clearly not enough" in light of the war in Ukraine.
"To prevent war, we need to spend more, that's clear", she told a BBC programme.
Kalas added that member states also need to work together to "put pressure" on Russia economically, and hinted at a new package of sanctions next month to mark three years of the war in Ukraine.
The EU must be "creative" in terms of limiting "Russia's ability to wage this war", she said, adding that putting pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin "is the way to end this war, because Putin is the one who started it".
Before taking up her EU post last December, Kallas repeatedly called for higher levels of defence spending while she was Estonia's first female prime minister, the BBC recalls.