Marian Dobranschi

EU Taxes for the EU Budget in the Light of Sustainability Orientation – a Survey

Abstract EU taxes play a key role in political and economic discussions about the future of the EU own resource system, and their desirability can vary accordingly. It is therefore essential to clearly articulate the goals which are to be achieved by the introduction of this new financing tool. This paper provides a critical review of pros and cons of EU taxes put forward in the literature. Reviewing the conventional fiscal federalism and political economy literature on this topic it can be concluded that there is no convincing (overall) case for funding the EU budget with EU taxes rather than with contributions by Member States which currently make up for the lion’s share of EU own resources. There are, however, some specific issues arising from a sustainability perspective, which could be addressed with the introduction of EU taxes. Departing from a comprehensive concept of sustainability which is based on the economic, the social, the environmental and the cultural/institutional pillar of sustainability, the paper identifies existing sustainability gaps in taxation in the EU. EU taxes if designed accordingly may be suitable instruments to reduce these sustainability gaps and thus to strengthen sustainability-orientation of taxation in the EU.

Double Dividend Hypothesis: Can it Occur when Tackling Carbon Emissions?☆

Abstract The paper focuses on the double dividend hypothesis occurrence in case of carbon taxation enactment. Our assessment questions the conditional occurrence of the hypothesis, where environment improvement and the reduction of tax distortions depend not only on the design of carbon taxes but also on the complementary measures implemented to enhance their efficiency. This paper takes into consideration previous proposals to reduce labor taxation in order to strengthen double dividend hypothesis and aims to point out the risks of such measures, for they could endanger the process of pollution abatement. Due to this fact, the paper proposes another set of alternative measures to boost carbon taxation efficiency.

Pigouvian Carbon Tax Rate: Can It Help the European Union Achieve Sustainability?

The aim of this paper is to argue the applicability of the Pigouvian tax on negative externalities such as carbon emissions. Our approach is based on the fierce debate between Pigou’s followers and opponents from which we can underline the tax’s primary flaws and advantages to enable us to propose a viable and efficient taxation system that would have a declining effect on carbon emissions. To construct a carbon-impacting tax, we propose an analysis of the fundamental rationale that led to the construction of Pigou’s theory on eliminating negative externalities using taxation.