536 MEPs yesterday asked the European Commission to finish its report on 'innovative financing' before the June G20 talks, so world leaders can come up with specific proposals on which banks will be taxed and how.
Just 80 MEPs voted against the EU executive's examination of a bank tax – so far dubbed a financial transactions tax (FTT) in the legislature – amid 33 abstentions.
Plans still 'embryonic'
World leaders will meet in Toronto in June this year and are expected to come to an agreement on how a global tax should be structured.
Though the European Parliament's vote shows heightened interest in Brussels for a tax on banks, the EU institutions warn that much work remains to be done at both EU and global level on the shape and timing of such a tax.
"Plans for an FTT are very much in the embryonic phase," a Parliament source told EurActiv.
The European Commission also said that its paper on innovative financing was currently being written and that it was too early to talk of legislation on a bank tax.
The Commission paper, like a parallel paper being drafted by the International Monetary Fund, is not only examining an FTT but also a levy on assets, as is the case with US President Barack Obama's proposal.
Commission to examine Swedish fund
On Monday EU Taxation Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta was grilled by MEPs on EU plans for a bank tax.
Though Šemeta appeared to back a tax on banks, he warned that any policy would have to include a "distributive mechanism" to ensure that revenues did not end up in the bloc's leading financial centres.
The EU executive told EurActiv it was examining a Swedish scheme which was introduced as early as October 2008.
The Swedish Stability Fund has been collecting a 0.036% fee from banks and credit institutions, which, if all goes according to plan, should accrue 2.5% of GDP in 15 years.
Academics praise the Swedish fund for targeting a broad range of liabilities but criticise the idea of a flat-rate because it does not send out the right signal that banks should take fewer risks.
"The Swedish levy is a good idea becaues it makes the financial sector pay for its own rescue but ideally it should penalise riskier liabilities more than less risky liabilities," argues Sony Kapoor from the Re-Define think-tank.
American economist Jeffrey Sachs has also launched a campaign for a broad-based tax on banks, and yesterday encouraged the EU to go it alone if the US moves too slowly (EurActiv 10/03/10).
This may prove unlikely as Brussels-based diplomats argue that the UK will not move without the US on board.
The US and the UK are both waiting for the conclusions of the IMF report, which is due out in mid-April.
