Brussels, 19/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday of next week, the European Commission will unveil a draft decision establishing enhanced cooperation to introduce a financial transactions tax (FTT), announced the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, at the end of the European summit in Brussels. The draft decision will be presented at the ECOFIN Council on Tuesday 13 November to be adopted by a qualified majority vote. Over the next few weeks, the Commission will draw up legislation setting out the details of the tax, which the countries involved in the enhanced cooperation mechanism will have to endorse unanimously, probably in January 2013. Meanwhile, a tenth country, Slovakia, has officially announced it will be joining the FTT enhanced cooperation.
There is a dispute about what should be done with the tax revenue. Some governments want it to go to the EU budget, but others want each country to decide for itself how to dispose of the cash. Germany suggests that the FTT should go into the eurozone budget (see separate article). The Italian Prime Minister, Mario Monti, says this idea is “interesting” but at one time the Italian government thought of using the tax income to feed into the country's next year's budget. On Thursday, the president of the Commission said it was unlikely that the FTT would be used for a eurozone budget because not all eurozone countries will be introducing the FTT. Belgian prime minister Elio Di Rupo wants the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, to explore how it would be possible to use the tax for the eurozone while keeping it separate from the EU27 budget. (FG/transl.fl)