Brussels, 10/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The Austrian Finance Minister, Hans Joerg Schelling, took stock of the differences of opinion which remain to be overcome so that an agreement can be reached - as is his ambition - on the financial transactions tax (FTT), even though each country is calling for various exemptions to the tax.
“I suppose it is necessary that we can have a solution” on the sidelines of the forthcoming Ecofin Council, to be held on 8 December, he said on Tuesday 10 November, the day after a ministerial meeting with the 11 countries participating in reinforced cooperation on the FTT. “If there is no solution, then one should discuss just as openly that no decision could be reached”, he added.
He went on to list the misgivings of Italy which, he said, wants derivative products related to sovereign bonds to be included in the scope of application of the tax, even though there already seems consensus that these instruments should be exempted. The Spanish Finance Minister, Luis De Guindos, repeated that derivatives linked to public debt should stay on the outside of the agreement. “This has been agreed to”, he reiterated. The Italian Minister, Pier Carlo Padoan, confirmed Italy's objections on the scope for derivatives, but did not go into greater detail.
Schelling was echoing the words of his French colleague, Michel Sapin, who had referred the day before to the reluctance of the smaller countries. Slovenia and Estonia, the Austrian Minister explained, “have a different view of the question of territoriality: here, it is a question of knowing if we can or will only tax shares in the 11 states of the FTT or also beyond them”, Schelling explained. The Austrian plans to negotiate bilaterally with these countries.
The Belgian minister, Johan Van Overtveldt, said that he was “prepared to continue the work to achieve an FTT; but I intend scrupulously to carry out the assessments necessary with all of the member states in question, so as to avoid this instrument having negative effects on the real economy, on large businesses and small ones”. Belgium's concern, supported by Germany and Spain, is to exempt pension and insurance funds. France opposes this.
According to certain sources, France hopes to exempt market-making activities, on the basis of a broad definition.
The Austrians must now draft a document which will be used as a basis for the technical discussions and which will include the points still to be settled. Over at the European Commission, the feeling is that it is time to stop talking about principles and start to draft the legislative texts. “There is a good working method and political will to move forward”, said a spokesperson to the European institution. Given the progress made on Monday evening, the Commission intends to support a political guideline debate at the December Ecofin, rather than simply taking stock.
“I feel that for Ecofin before the end of the year, we will manage to identify the outlines of the tax”, said Luis De Guindos. If there is no agreement by the end of the year, it will be hard to achieve one, said Hans Joerg Schelling. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)