EditStrange French idea for filling the EU’s coffers
Using Google fines to cut national contributions is a windfall, not a budget strategy
French Europe Minister Benjamin Haddad told Franceinfo that the EU should treat Google fines as “a new revenue source” of €4.6 billion that “should automatically lower the contributions of all member states.”
That figure is not a regular annual haul. It is the Android antitrust fine plus interest, paid after the Court of Justice upheld the case in July. A separate €890 million Digital Markets Act fine was added in July; Reuters puts Google’s total EU competition penalties at about €10.4 billion over nearly two decades.
Put against the budget, the idea looks small and lumpy, not a pillar of finance. The 2026 EU budgetis about €193 billion in commitments and €190 billion in payments. Member states’ own-resource payments this year are in the same range, roughly €185–192 billion. So €4.6 billion is about 2.4 percent of one year’s budget – useful as a one-off rebate, trivial as a substitute for national contributions. The Commission’s proposed 2028–2034framework is about €2 trillion (1.26 percent of GNI). Spread over seven years, a €4.6 billion windfall is about 0.2 percent of that package. Even the whole 20-year Google tally would not fund a month of the next MFF.
Two further problems make Haddad’s line politically neat and fiscally weak.
First, this is already how the system works. Competition fines are “other revenue.” When they are collected, they reduce the GNI-based call on capitals unless the Council and Parliament decide otherwise. France is not inventing a new own resource; it is advertising a payment that was always going to ease national contributions in 2026.
Second, fines are a terrible “stable” tax. They arrive years late, after appeals. They spike when a mega-case lands and vanish when it does not. They also import a foreign-policy cost: Washington has repeatedly treated EU penalties on US tech firms as a trade grievance, not a bookkeeping item. Building the EU budget on the hope that Brussels will keep fining Silicon Valley is to build it on litigation and retaliation. A budget needs a predictable base — GNI, customs, VAT, plastics. A Google cheque is a windfall. It is not a revenue strategy.
Caption: Benjamin Haddad, French Minister Delegate for Europe attends a General Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, Belgium, 22 September 2026. Ministers discuss the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework for 2028-2034, preparations for the October European Council, the EU’s legislative program for 2027, and rule of law developments in the EU and selected candidate countries. EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET
Updated: September 29, 2026 - 15:15
