Brussels, 11/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - The Socialists at the European Parliament (EP) urge the member states to go ahead with the introduction of a financial transactions tax (FTT) in eleven countries despite the objections voiced by Council of Ministers' legal experts and their disagreement with European Commission experts (see EUROPE 10918).
The head of the S&D Group at the EP, Hannes Swoboda (Austria), and the EP chief negotiator on the FTT, Greek MEP Anni Podimata, say that national governments would be blamed if they failed to keep their promise of introducing an FTT to ensure fair taxation of the financial sector and discourage speculation by combining country of residence and country of emission and ownership rules for the taxing of financial transactions. In a press release, the S&D says that the Council of Ministers' legal opinion is not a new element in the FTT debate because the country of residence idea is not a new invention and is already applied in other areas, like income tax and VAT. The S&D says that watering down the FTT would send a bad signal to Europeans, who are having to pay a heavy price for the financial crisis. (FG/transl.fl)