Brussels, 16/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - Following a call from a group of organisations including Oxfam France, several heads of the Europe Ecology-The Greens list and the vast majority of French Socialist candidates for the European Parliament have signed a “Pact” in which they pledge to work to ensure the introduction of an ambitious financial transactions tax (FTT) to be used for solidarity and call on the French president to take action to this effect. Oxfam France, AIDES (a member of Coalition Plus), ATTAC, CCFD- Terre Solidaire, Collectif Roosevelt and Les Amis de la Terre hope that other candidates for the European elections will join the initiative before election day, 25 May. Current MEPs José Bové, Michèle Rivasi, Eva Joly, Yannick Jadot, Catherine Trautman and Perveche Berès have signed up.
The associations regret that the 6 May statement by ten countries on the introduction of the FTT does not say which products will be taxed or what will be done with the revenue. The ten countries have agreed to levy the tax in 2016 on share transactions and certain derivatives. The associations have issued a press release in which they explain that a minimum rate of 0.01% to 0.1% (depending on the type of transaction) applied to all derivative transactions on the European financial market would tackle excess speculation and allow income of up to €37 billion to be generated each year Europe-wide, money that could be used to protect jobs and public services, increasing international aid, as well as fighting against AIDS and climate change. The bodies call on EU28 development ministers at their meeting in Brussels on Monday 19 May to call for FTT income to be used for international solidarity. (EL)