French minister says EU should use Google fine proceeds to cut member budget contributions
France’s minister for European affairs, Benjamin Haddad, said Tuesday that the European Union should use billions of euros collected from fines imposed on Google to reduce how much member states pay into the EU budget, according to a Reuters report cited by Phoenix Technology. In an interview with French television, Haddad said the money represented a new source of EU revenue and put the figure at 4.6 billion euros, arguing that it should be used to automatically lower contributions from all member states. The report also said Google was fined a total of 890 million euros, or about $1.01 billion, in July for violating EU rules designed to curb the power of large technology companies. With the latest penalty, the total amount of antitrust fines imposed on Google by the EU over nearly two decades has reached 10.38 billion euros. The comments came as EU countries negotiate the bloc’s 2028-2034 budget. The European Commission has proposed a budget of 2 trillion euros, equal to 1.26% of the EU’s gross national income, with about 168 billion euros earmarked to repay borrowing raised for the post-pandemic recovery fund.
