{"id":12771,"date":"2026-06-24T11:20:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T10:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=12771"},"modified":"2026-06-26T11:31:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T10:31:49","slug":"mark-rutte-is-nato-secretary-general-and-his-proposals-cannot-bind-all-eu-member-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2026\/06\/24\/mark-rutte-is-nato-secretary-general-and-his-proposals-cannot-bind-all-eu-member-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Rutte Is NATO Secretary General, and His Proposals Cannot Bind All EU Member States"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Original article<\/a> (in Croatian) was published on 23\/6\/2026; Author: Ana Sori\u0107<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The level of taxation paid by Europeans is determined by their national governments, not by the institutions of the European Union.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A private Facebook user shared a post (archived here<\/a>) claiming that the European Union obliges its member states to increase taxes in their countries and that NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte<\/strong> has called for greater financial contributions to Ukraine. Her post (archived here<\/a>), published on June 11, reads in full:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“If you’ve been wondering why the EU, among other things, orders its member states to impose ever higher taxes on their citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NATO Secretary General Rutti Frutti, who, like in Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’, still lives with his mother, has just stated that neither the \u20ac90 billion approved by the EU, nor the \u20ac109 billion calculated by The Wall Street Journal, nor any other amount in the billions will be enough to meet Ukraine’s ‘financial needs’. He is therefore calling for an indefinite permanent tax of 0.25% of the economic output of all EU and NATO countries. For Germany, this would mean an additional \u20ac10\u201312 billion per year, and around \u20ac50 billion for the EU as a whole\u2026”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"Screenshot:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The EU cannot impose taxes on its member states<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As stated on the European Union’s official website, the EU cannot and does not impose<\/a> taxes on citizens or businesses. That responsibility lies exclusively with the individual member states. This means that the level of taxation paid by Europeans is determined by their own national governments. The EU has no authority<\/a> to introduce or collect taxes, nor can it “order member states” to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the European Union, the primary objective of EU tax policy is to ensure the smooth functioning of the single market by preventing tax barriers from hindering cross-border economic activity and avoiding distortions of competition. The aim is to ensure that citizens and businesses do not encounter problems such as double taxation, unfair competition, difficulties in claiming tax refunds, or obtaining information on tax rules in other member states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As emphasised by the Croatian Tax Administration<\/a>, each EU member state is free to design its own tax system, provided it does not introduce harmful tax measures at the expense of other member states. “Tax policy is determined independently by the member states, while at the EU level only those taxes linked to the single market are harmonised, in order to ensure equal conditions for all economic operators throughout the EU. Harmonisation is mandatory only in the area of indirect taxation, namely value added tax (VAT) and excise duties on energy products, tobacco products and alcoholic beverages. Minimum tax rates are established for these products in the interest of fair market competition,” the Tax Administration explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major countries oppose Rutte’s proposal<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As evidence for her claim that “the EU orders member states to increase taxation,” the Facebook user refers to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s proposal for “an indefinite permanent tax of 0.25% of the economic output of all EU and NATO countries.” It should first be noted that NATO and the European Union are separate international organisations with separate institutions. Moreover, not all EU member states are NATO members, meaning that the NATO Secretary General cannot propose measures at NATO meetings that would automatically apply to all EU countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is true that Mark Rutte proposed at a closed-door meeting in late April that NATO allies allocate at least 0.25% of their GDP to military assistance for Kyiv. However, the proposal immediately met with opposition. According to Politico<\/a>, Rutte put forward the idea after several member states complained that they were contributing more to Ukraine than others. Research by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) found that the Nordic countries, the Baltic states, the Netherlands and Poland have provided the highest levels of support. The same data show<\/a> that these countries have already reached or exceeded the 0.25% of GDP threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, NATO sources told Politico that France and the United Kingdom immediately opposed the proposal. In May, Rutte acknowledged that his plan lacked sufficient support among member states, and according to NATO sources, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy and Canada all oppose committing 0.25% of GDP to military aid for Kyiv. Since all major NATO decisions require unanimous approval<\/a>, opposition from several large member states is sufficient to block the proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of making a mandatory contribution of 0.25% of allied countries’ GDP for Ukraine was first raised last year by Ukrainian Energy Minister and former Prime Minister Denis \u0160mihal<\/strong> during a meeting<\/a> of defence ministers and other senior officials in Brussels last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March, the NATO Secretary General presented a report<\/a> showing that, for the first time, all NATO member states had met the alliance’s 2014 target of spending at least 2% of GDP on defence. However, at last year’s NATO Summit in The Hague, allies agreed to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 \u2013 3.5% for core defence expenditure and an additional 1.5% for infrastructure with both civilian and military purposes. Rutte expects this target to be reaffirmed at the upcoming NATO Summit, scheduled for July 7\u20138 in Ankara, where a final decision rejecting the proposed 0.25% of GDP contribution for military aid to Kyiv is also expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion, it is not true that the European Union orders its member states to set specific tax levels. The EU has no authority to impose or collect taxes; that responsibility rests exclusively with the individual member states. Likewise, the proposal to allocate at least 0.25% of GDP to support Ukraine, put forward by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, applies to NATO allies, not to all European Union member states. We therefore conclude that the Facebook post lacks important context regarding the EU’s tax policy and the powers of the NATO Secretary General.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original article (in Croatian) was published on 23\/6\/2026; Author: Ana Sori\u0107 The level of taxation paid by Europeans is determined by their national governments, not by the institutions of the European Union. A private Facebook user shared a post (archived here) claiming that the European Union obliges its member states to increase taxes in their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-12771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-checks","tag-croatia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12771"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12789,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12771\/revisions\/12789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}