Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the income from the money eventually flows into the overall EU budget, so it's like we (EU residents) get a tiny rebate on our taxes. But seems to also depend on each country, Spain is somewhat unique in that the DPA seems to keep it themselves.
You are partly wrong, the money from fines eventually flows into the overall EU budget, which is financed by contributions from member countries, so this contribution will be a bit lower, but this will not propagate into lower taxes for us.
> this will not propagate into lower taxes for us.
Yeah, sorry if I was unclear, I didn't mean that residents would literally have a line item on their tax bill because of the fines. But since the fines go into the overall budget, it's like the budget grows (in a very small amount) without people having higher taxes.
>> so it's like we (EU residents) get a tiny rebate on our taxes.
Don't know specifically about this scenario, but I've never seen a government's general revenues account treated like this. Governments rarely pay "dividends" - unless you're a targeted voting block they decide to go after.
The EU, specifically, essentially runs a balanced budget, so increased revenue from stuff other than member state contributions will reduce the required member state contributions. Of course how each member state funds those and what it does with them if they get cheaper is up to that member state.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the income from the money eventually flows into the overall EU budget, so it's like we (EU residents) get a tiny rebate on our taxes. But seems to also depend on each country, Spain is somewhat unique in that the DPA seems to keep it themselves.