France proposes using Google's antitrust fines to offset EU budget contributions

France's Minister for Europe, Benjamin Haddad, has called on the European Commission to consider using fines collected from Google to reduce EU member states' contributions to the bloc's common budget, Reuters reported.

Haddad said this represents a new revenue source for the European Union worth 4.6 billion euros, which should automatically lower contributions from all member states to the planned multiannual budget, valued at roughly 2 trillion euros.

History of the fines

In July, the European Commission fined Google a total of 890 million euros for violating requirements of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The recent penalties brought the total sum of EU fines imposed on Google for anti-competitive practices to 10.38 billion euros over nearly two decades.

Budget negotiations context

Funds from the fines could help ease negotiations over the EU's seven-year budget, which have been complicated by disputes over its overall size and spending priorities. EU member state governments aim to reach an agreement by the end of the year.

Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Sweden have called on the European Commission to cut the proposed long-term budget for 2028-2034 by several hundred billion euros.

As previously reported, the European Commission plans to allocate 100 billion euros for support to Ukraine in the 2028-2034 budget, while maintaining reform requirements.