The European Union should use proceeds from the billions of euros in fines imposed on Google to reduce member states’ contributions to the EU budget, France’s Europe minister said Tuesday.
“This is a new revenue source for the European Union, worth 4.6 billion euros, that should automatically lower the contributions of all member states,” Benjamin Haddad said in an interview with the Franceinfo TV station.
EU capitals are divided over both the size of the next budget and how it should be spent.
Google was fined a total of 890 million euros ($1.01 billion) in July for flouting EU rules meant to rein in the power of Big Tech. The latest penalties bring the total the EU has imposed on Google for anti-competitive practices to 10.38 billion euros over nearly two decades.
EU governments are negotiating the budget for 2028 to 2034. Summits are planned for October, November and December, as leaders try to reach a deal before the end of the year.
The European Commission has proposed a budget of 2 trillion euros, or 1.26 percent of the EU’s gross national income. About 168 billion euros of that, or 0.11 percent of gross national income, would go toward servicing the bloc’s borrowing for its post-pandemic recovery fund.
![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://iwpost.com/france-presses-eu-to-direct-google-penalties-toward-budget-relief/&media=https://iwpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/22600-france-presses-eu-to-direct-google-penalties-toward-budget-relief.jpg&description=The European Union should use proceeds from the billions of euros in fines imposed on Google to reduce member states' contributions to the EU budget, France's Europe minister said Tuesday. "This is a new revenue source for the European Union, worth 4.6 billion euros, that should automatically lower the contributions of all member states," Benjamin…){kind=link}