The European Union has put forward a plan to tax SMS and email to help raise funds for its own running costs. 

According to the idea proposed by the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets, the tax would levy 1.5 cents (0.8p) for every text and 0.00001 cents for every email sent. 

"This is peanuts but, given the billions of transactions every day, it could still raise an immense income," French MEP Alain Lamassoure told Reuters. 

"Exchanges between countries have ballooned, so everyone would understand that the money to finance the EU should come from the benefits engendered by the EU."
The EU's budget is currently raised using payments from member countries, value added tax and import duties.