The EU Commission has been asked to prepare draft legislation for a financial transaction tax (FTT) as the 10 EU ministers negotiating the terms of a FTT have achieved significant progress toward an agreement.
Speaking to reporters in Luxembourg yesterday, Pierre Moscovici Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, said that EU ministers have agreed on “four important measures that will form the core engine of such a tax.”
Following this “very important progress,” the ministers asked the EU Commission to prepare draft FTT legislation, Moscovici said.
Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Slovakia, and Slovenia have been negotiating a FTT through a program known as enhanced cooperation.
“Hopefully, in the weeks to come, we will be capable of submitting this draft to the ministers so that they can go to the finish line,” Moscovici said. He said agreement on the tax may be reached later this year.
“We are designing something which is, at the same time is ambitious . . . but also realistic. We are not going to do something that goes against the spirit of business,” Moscovici said.
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