Brussels, 09/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - Various NGOs and a number of members of the European Parliament have expressed considerable disappointment with the outcome of the ministerial meeting held this week on the financial transactions tax (FTT) (see EUROPE 11448). Readers may recall that the ministers announced an agreement on the outlines of an FTT, but little progress has been made. A number of sources even say that the only purpose of the publication of a joint declaration on the FTT was to “avoid ridicule”. The 11 participants in the enhanced cooperation (Belgium, France, Slovakia, Estonia, Slovenia, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Greece and Italy) have, furthermore, lost Estonia along the way, but possibly only temporarily.
The Greens/EFA group at the EP was particularly incisive. Stating that the ministers were “not a single step closer” to an agreement, a press release issued by the group states that it is “high time to stop this 'make-believe' policy of announcing an agreement if only a small amount has been agreed upon”.
The NGO Oxfam also stated that there was still no progress on the key elements of the future tax. Javier Pereira, policy adviser at Oxfam, went on to say that Estonia's withdrawal shows “the whole FTT project could be at risk if no progress is made soon”.
The Deputy General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, Veronica Nilsson, welcomed the fact that the FTT is “still on track after all this time, although many of the key details still need to be worked out”.
On the sidelines of the ministerial meeting on the FTT on Monday, the S&D group at the EP, through Portugal's Elisa Ferreira, said that the moment of truth had probably come. Ferreira said that the FTT should steer clear of wide exemptions for financial players or specific markets, in order to reduce the risk of tax evasion.
Taking note of Belgian misgivings about the proposal in recent months, CNCD-11.11.11 was one of several Belgian civil society organisations which took up the pen earlier this week to call on the government to support the implementation of an ambitious tax.
However, in the view of the Commissioner for Taxation, Pierre Moscovici, in addition to the substance element, there is also a form element. On Tuesday evening, he told a small group of journalists that it is currently being proven that “enhanced cooperation in the tax field can work. If unanimity is not possible, nine states should be able to go forward together”. He called for the results of this meeting not to be underestimated. “Either we had this joint declaration or we didn't, and that would mean that the tax would not see the light of day”, he explained.
The most scathing criticism of the outcome of the meeting of the 11 ministers probably came from the non-participating countries, mainly the United Kingdom, which has threatened to bring the matter before the Court of Justice of the EU if the FTT had any impact outside the participating countries. “To me, the arguments don't seem very solid, because we aren't doing anything new”, Commissioner Moscovici explained, adding that the Commission would make sure that the tax complied with Community law and was compatible with the single market. “The process has to be inclusive, we have to be kept up to date”, the Luxembourg finance minister, Pierre Gramegna, said after the Ecofin Council.
Commissioner Moscovici went on to point out that after the formal agreement, anticipated for June 2016, it will take about a year to set the FTT in place. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)