Brussels, 16/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - In a letter to the Council of the EU dated Wednesday 16 March, Estonia has formally notified its withdrawal from the enhanced cooperation to bring in a financial transaction tax (FTT).
In December last year, its minister said that the country was unable to get behind the joint statement laying down a few guidelines to continue discussions on this highly sensitive dossier.
Initially, there turned out to be a legal gap around the procedure to leave enhanced cooperation. In February, the legal services confirmed that a simple formal notification would suffice.
The ten remaining states are still seeking to make progress, but the most recent German and French statements on this dossier showed that the states are becoming fed up after three years of discussions. EUROPE will return to this. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)