Europe may soon be asked to fund part of its budget with airwaves. Greece wants EU governments to create a European Spectrum Union, a vehicle that would steer some of the money raised by future national 6G spectrum sales into technology investment and ease the strain on the bloc’s finances.
The plan comes from Kyriakos Pierrakakis, who chairs the euro zone finance ministers, and was put to EU ministers on Tuesday. It sets the potential initial scale at “around €12-15 billion”. The paper is careful about that number. At this stage, it says, the figure is “a planning assumption rather than an official valuation or forecast”, and it leaves out any future income from selected 5G rights.
Why the money matters
The EU’s 2028-2034 budget is proposed at €2 trillion. It is the main source of funding for every major EU policy, and the talks are hard. New demands, from higher defence spending to making Europe more competitive, have to fit beside most of the money for older policies that support farming and cohesion. If all 27 members accept the spectrum idea, the revenue could take some pressure off.
It is one option among several. Countries are split on using a share of the cash governments earn by selling CO2 emissions permits to companies, and on a share of a tax on imported goods made where climate policies are weaker than in the EU. Other ideas include levies on extreme wealth, digital services, online gambling and crypto asset capital gains.
Ireland now has to work out which of these options, or which mix, could win unanimous support from all 27 countries before the next EU summit in October.
