The ministerial meeting of the ten countries participating in the enhanced cooperation to bring in a financial transaction tax (FTT), which was due to be held on Thursday 26 January following the Eurogroup meeting, did not end up taking place. The reason given is that the Austrian finance minister, Hans Joerg Schelling, who is chairing the ministerial discussions, was unable to attend as the new Austrian president, Alexander Van der Bellen, was being sworn in on the same day.
The ministers will therefore get together instead on the side-lines of the forthcoming meeting of the Eurogroup, on 20 February. The meeting was not expected to be decisive, but it still had its own importance, as it would have allowed the ministers to make a political response to the adjustments called for by Belgium and Slovakia (see EUROPE 11711).
A list of questions had been prepared to determine whether the enhanced cooperation was ready to accept an exemption to the tax for pension funds.
As regards the real economy, Belgium and Slovakia have concerns that the anti-abuse clause of the directive mistakenly does not cover companies which should not be taxed. Basically, under this clause, any business, institution, entity or person with an annual value of financial transactions representing more than 50% of its net turnover would be subject to the tax. The ministers were also due to take position on this concern.
"A deal is within reach, if we only consider the technical and legal issues. But what is needed is political will", the European Commissioner for Taxation, Pierre Moscovici, said on Thursday. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)