EU Budget & New Corporate Taxes: What Public Affairs Leaders Need to Know
by Momina Hanan, Consultant
The European Commission’s proposed €2 trillion multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2028–34 has landed with a political *thud*. Alongside significant spending for climate, defence, digital, and enlargement, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called for five new EU-level revenue streams, including a meaty corporate levy on companies with turnover exceeding €100 million.
While positioned as a step towards fair contribution, the proposal is already drawing resistance from several member states: Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Hungary have voiced concerns around economic competitiveness setting the stage for intense negotiations in the European Council.
A Taxing Moment for Corporate Affairs
For public affairs professionals, this marks a critical moment to rethink engagement strategies. The proposed corporate levy, if implemented, would apply directly to large businesses potentially overlapping with national tax regimes changing assumptions about operating costs in Europe, fuelling the fire of the conversation on a “competitive Europe”.
But what really matters now is the politics. This tax package isn’t going to glide through untouched, far from it. Countries like the ones mentioned above are already pushing back hard. They’re worried about what it could mean for industry and investment, and they’ll be gunning for exemptions, delays, or softer versions. For corporate affairs teams in Brussels, it’s a tricky but golden moment, the kind where knowing the mood in the room and getting your timing right can make all the difference.
Looking Ahead
Von der Leyen’s tax and budget proposal isn’t just a policy outline. It’s a political signal. This will likely become an early litmus test for where the new Commission intends to draw its lines on fiscal integration, corporate responsibility, and shared European investment.
For corporate affairs teams, this isn’t the time to sit back and observe. It’s a moment to assert real strategic value — both internally and externally. That means demonstrating fluency in the shifting policy landscape and keeping a careful eye on wider priorities like competitiveness, green transition and/or defence, but also means helping senior leadership read the political room.
Beyond simply reacting to new rules, corporate affairs professionals have a key role to play in shaping the narrative, not just at the Brussels bubble level, but across Europe’s capitals. That includes aligning internal messaging with what matters to policymakers, building constructive feedback loops with trade associations, and helping the business community come to the table with realistic, forward-looking proposals rather than defensive posturing.
The road to 2028, when this budget would take effect, may seem long, but the groundwork is being laid now. Every negotiation, position paper, and media line will feed into a broader story about the role of business in Europe’s future. And it’s not just Brussels that will matter. In this recalibrated political landscape, influence will be earned in Berlin, Stockholm, The Hague, Switzerland, Spain and beyond.
MadlinHanna Consulting is a recruitment consultancy specialising in public affairs, corporate communications and financial PR. Contact us in London on +44 (0) 20 8088 4102 or in Brussels on +32 (0) 2 586 38 98 for more information or a confidential conversation about these services and more.