Brussels, 12/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 11 February, Austrian finance minister Hans Joerg Schelling told Bloomberg that he wanted solutions to be found at a meeting in March to ensure that no further countries abandoned the enhanced cooperation on the financial transactions tax (FTT).
Estonia will write a letter over the next few weeks to formally inform the Council and Commission of its withdrawal now that it, and the other member states, has received the opinion from the Council's legal department that there weren't any particular problems with leaving enhanced cooperation (see EUROPE 11488).
Earlier in the year, Belgium also let it be understood that it had doubts about whether to remain in the FTT group of countries (see EUROPE 11475), fearing that the tax would impact negatively on pension funds and the real economy, along with the plan to set up a Capital Market Union. Slovenia fears that the FTT will not generate enough income to cover the cost of implementing it. Enhanced cooperation requires the participation of nine member states. Several sources say that if the two countries do actually leave, they will do so together.
“If some countries leave we have no more to discuss,” Schelling told Bloomberg, adding that under the political agreement, the countries were clear that the FTT would only be introduced if enough income would be raised from it. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)