Tasked with producing solutions for the future financing of the EU by December 2016, the group is calling for an overhaul of how the EU is funded for the first time since the 1980s. In that time, member state contributions, which was originally intended to be a complementary source of income, has come to account for approximately 80% of its budget.

A series of correction mechanisms such as rebates for some member states were also added to the system, which make the overall contribution per member state hard to measure, they added.

Speaking at a conference on the budget held last week, Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe parliamentary group and a member of the high-level budget group group, said the EU’s long-term budget had grown into ‘an incomprehensible patchwork of 53 exceptions’.

He added: ‘That's the reason to stop this crazy game. We don't talk about the EU's interests anymore.’

That inflexiblity has impeded the EU’s response to several crises, particularly over the current long-term budget which was agreed in 2013.

Joachim Poβ, a member of the German parliament's EU affairs committee, highlighted the need for new income sources, but queried political will.

He said: ‘The problems are there. We can either tackle environmental, migration and other issues together or at the national level. However, the nationalist approach will lead us to a blind alley.’

Despite that, Swedish representative Jörgen Andersson indicated his government would be sceptical of proposals removing fiscal competences from national parliaments.

The group’s final report is due in December 2016.