Brussels, 10/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - The decision by 11 Member States, representing some 90% of the eurozone GDP, to introduce a financial transactions tax (FTT) has been welcomed (see EUROPE 10706) and they hope other countries will join them.
The difficult decision by Italy to join the FTT idea matured over the last few days in constant discussion with the Spanish government, explained Italy's Permanent Representative to the EU, Ferdinando Nelli Feroci, on Tuesday 9 October after the ECOFIN Council. He said that Italy's membership was the subject of horsetrading and Italy had now abandoned its wait-and-see attitude (it had initially wanted the FTT to be introduced along with anti-spread growth-stimulus measures and had wanted a greater number of countries to be involved).
Anni Podimata (S&D, Greece), European Parliament rapporteur on the FTT, welcomed the eleven nations' decision, saying that the tax would help shift the burden from citizens to the financial industry, which has still not paid its fair share of the costs of the crisis. Her political party will be trying to get as many countries as possible to join in. Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts said the 11 countries had put the EU in the global avant-garde by pledging to levy the tax on transactions outside their national borders. He hoped the European Commission's future legislation would include the emission country idea whereby financial institutions outside participating countries will be obliged to the pay the FTT if they sell bonds, stocks or securities issued within the EU.
A suitable amount to fund development? Welcoming this major step forwards, development charities are concerned about the absence of any reference to what will be done with the monies raised. ONE, an anti-poverty charity founded by the U2 singer Bono, says that the signal sent by France, the first country in the world to earmark some of its FTT revenue (3.75% in 2013) for the world's poorest countries, was hardly very optimistic because an FTT only made sense if a significant proportion of its revenue is used to finance development and action to adjust to climate change. ONE urges France to work to ensure most of the European FTT revenue is used in the fight against poverty. (FG/AN/transl.fl)