Commission announces proposal on FTT legislation
The European Commission announced its proposal for a directive setting out the framework for the implementation under enhanced cooperation of the tax on financial transactions.
The proposed directive will be negotiated under the Irish Presidency and will hopefully be approved in the summer. The proposal makes no reference to the crucial issue of revenue allocation. Allocation is at the heart of the pro-FTT argumentation by civic society organisations, which call for the direction of a fare share of the collected revenues towards combating poverty and climate change.
As stated in the preamble of the proposed EU directive: “In 2011, the Commission took note of a debate on-going at all levels on additional taxation of the financial sector. The debate originates from the desire to ensure that the financial sector fairly and substantially contributes to the costs of the crisis and that it is taxed in a fair way vis-à-vis other sectors for the future, to dis-incentivise excessively risky activities by financial institutions, to complement regulatory measures aimed at avoiding future crises and to generate additional revenue for general budgets or specific policy purposes.”
Sources: EC-Proposal for a Council Directive implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of financial transaction tax.