Quote from listedguru:
I thought this nugget was interesting:
Speaking at the event, Roger Liddle, an ex-adviser to European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and Tony Blair, said upcoming elections in Europe could make an FTT more likely.
He said: âIt has a lot of political traction and the momentum behind it is quite strong on the continent. It will be strengthened if Francois Hollande becomes French president next month and if the German SDLP enter the Government in Berlin, which I think is quite likely, even if Mrs Merkel remains Chancellor.â
He added that those arguing, as Chancellor George Osborne does, that an FTT should only be introduced at a global level do not take into account the âglobal cloutâ of the EU. He said if the EU implemented the levy, it would âpressureâ other jurisdictions to follow suit.
I still find it highly unlikely that an EU or EZ FTT is going to happen. Whats more likely is a hodge podge of member states doing their own thing when it comes to the ftt so to speak. The EZ might not be around that much longer (LOL).
-Guru
Itâs all gone a bit quiet on the financial transactions tax front but Algirdas Å emeta, the European Unionâs tax commissioner, wants you to know that the idea is still very much alive.
In an interview with Die Zeit, the German daily, he said heâs not giving up on the idea that âderivatives must also be covered by the taxâ in order to reach a compromise at the EU level. He also seems to think that:
âThere are no serious arguments against this tax.â
The adopted text adds to the Commission proposal an "issuance principle" whereby financial institutions located outside the FTT zone would also be obliged to pay the FTT if they traded securities originally issued within this zone.
Various exemptions were requested by a number of MEPs. In the end the most substantive exemption was that granted to pension funds, which would see the tax waived on their transactions.
Members of the European Parliamentâs Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) have voted for the introduction of a Europe-wide financial transaction tax, despite strong opposition from national governments. While Parliament has no co-decision powers on the dossier, rapporteur Anni Podimata (S&D, Greece) said the vote - secured by 30 votes to 11 - would send a âstrong political signalâ to reluctant countries that the EU needs to raise new revenues to beat the crisis.
ECB head backs Maltaâs position
The European Central Bank governor has taken the same position as Malta on the proposed introduction of an EU-wide financial transaction tax, saying it will not work unless introduced on a global level.
âTo be practical, an FTT would have to be undertaken by all countries, otherwise you will have a displacement of industry towards countries that donât have this tax,â Mario Draghi told members of the European Parliamentâs Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (Econ).
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