Brussels, 11/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 14 February 2013, the European Commission is expected to unveil its draft directive on the financial transactions tax (FTT) to be introduced in 2014 by 11 countries working in “enhanced cooperation” (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Estonia, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia and Slovenia) which make up two-thirds of EU27 GDP and 90% of eurozone GDP. The directive will be based on an earlier draft unveiled by the Commission in September 2011 for the EU27, for a tax of 0.1% on all stocks and bonds deals and 0.01% on all derivatives deals where at least one of the financial institutions is registered in the EU. It was not possible to agree unaimously on the initial draft, so the idea has now been taken up by 11 countries. The new draft may well cover deals where one of the parties is registered in one of the 11 countries, and also when a deal has a “clear connection” with one of the countries, even if carried out by two operators outside the 11 countries, so as to discourage the shifting of transactions to countries not levying the FTT. All 27 EU member states will be involved in the talks on the FTT, but only those participating countries will have the right to vote. Decisions will have to be unanimous. (FG/transl.fl)