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Nine Eurozone members want the Danish Presidency of the EU to speed up its work on a directive on a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). While there is much opposition within the Eurozone and wider EU to such a tax, the nine countries intend to use the community method to allow them to use the EU institutions to set up and administer the tax and allow other countries to join while not holding them back.
The nine countries are:
- France
- Germany
- Austria
- Belgium
- Spain
- Italy
- Finland
- Greece
- Portugal
The inclusion of Greece and Portugal is interesting as they are in receipt of an IMF/ECB/EU Bailout while Italy and Spain haver been teetering on the edge for some time.
There is opposition to an EU wide tax mainly from the UK and Sweden with Poland and Ireland also voicing unease about the plans, so do not expect these countries to join up any time soon.
The letter comes at a time during the French Presidential Election where Nicolas Sarkozy has placed a lot of faith in such a tax to win votes at home and is of course implementing the tax in France with or without the other eight countries.
Taxation remains an unanimous decision at the Council of Ministers under the Treaty of Lisbon, so even if one country opposes there will not be an EU wide tax on financial transactions.
Related articles
- New study shows a Robinhood tax would boost growth (liberalconspiracy.org)
- French President To Introduce Financial Transactions Tax (thinkprogress.org)
- French president Nicolas Sarkozy to bring in 0.1pc Financial Transaction Tax in August (telegraph.co.uk)
- David Cameron: I will veto financial transaction tax (telegraph.co.uk)
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