Brussels, 08/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 7 February, nine EU member states urged the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU to speed through the processing of the draft EU financial transaction tax (FTT) at the Council of Ministers so the first reading can be completed in the first half of this year.. In the event of deadlock among the 27 member states, sources suggest the nine countries could go it alone through enhanced cooperation, a special legislative process laid down by the EU treaties for which at least nine EU member states are required
In the joint letter to the Danish Presidency, the Italian prime minister and the finance ministers of France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Greece and Portugal say they fully back the draft FTT directive unveiled by the European Commission in September 2011, saying that it needs to be introduced at EU level to ensure the financial industry makes a fair contribution to the cost of mopping up the financial crisis and also to improve regulation of the money markets. They therefore want the Danish Presidency to decide to speed through consideration of the draft directive and the negotiating process because several areas of the directive will need to be examined by technical experts to ensure they are do-able.
The Danish Presidency has welcomed the letter and says it is prepared to speed up the process by organising technical discussions ahead of a policy debate at the EU Council of finance ministers. The nine countries' letter was welcomed at a press conference by EU Commissioner Michel Barnier, who said that when the tax is set up, it will be economically affordable, financially productive, pretty easy on the technical front and above all politically correct, adding that nine countries is better than two or three (referring to recent moves by Germany to speed through the FTT and sell it to the EU27, and above all by France, which is planning to set an example by levying a 0.1% tax on some financial transactions in France).
There is strong resistance to the idea (which needs unanimous approval from the Council of Ministers) from member states like the United Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Malta, some of which fear that it would make Europe less attractive for banking and lead to a relocation of financial transactions, hitting growth and generating extra costs that would be passed on to consumers. (FG/transl.fl)