Representation without taxation: association or union of states?

The debate on the EU budget and its reform should not be prisoner to (only) technical arguments. The formation, composition and use of the budget are not only politically salient questions, but they imply also an idea of what the EU is and should be. If financing of EU activities is based on the principal of the fiscal sovereignty of its Member States, this principle does not seem to fit the need of the Eurozone to use autonomous resources for anti-cyclical purposes. This article argues that the principle of national fiscal sovereignty is compatible with the EU as an association of states, while it is not compatible with a Eurozone operating as a union of states. A differentiated strategy for the reform of the system of own resources of the EU should thus be adopted.