Tag: Tobin tax

EU finance ministers meeting in Brussels yesterday (13 March) asked the Danish presidency to consider compromise alternatives to the financial transaction tax (FTT) after a number of countries voiced concerns about the proposal.

A financial transaction tax is needed to repair the damage of the financial crisis, which has cost millions in jobs, and the money should be used to invest in low-carbon growth and employment, said Bernadette Ségol, the newly-appointed secretary-general of the European Trade Union Confederation, in an interview with EurActiv. 

The time is ripe for a pan-EU tax on financial transactions in order to curb financial speculation and raise revenue, write Socialists & Democrats group (S&D) MEPs Anni Podimata and Udo Bullmann.

Germany may widen a ban on speculative trades in financial stocks to cover all shares, a draft finance ministry document showed yesterday (25 May).

The Party of European Socialists (PES) last week launched a controversial video promoting the introduction of a financial transactions tax, portraying a banker spraying graffiti on a wall.  

Following in the footsteps of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), EU policymakers are scrutinising once more the idea of introducing a financial transactions tax as a panacea to the EU's budget deficits and an insurance policy for another crash in financial markets.

Taxing cross-border capital transactions could represent an alternative source of funding for the EU budget, and such revenue might also provide financial means to fight climate change, European Socialist and Green leaders have said.

A new study by the Goethe University, ordered by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, concludes a Tobin-like tax is feasible.

During an SPD-party conference, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said the critics of uneven trade relations or currency speculation are in "good company". Mr Schröder says globalisation cannot be reversed, but that a Tobin tax would pose lots of practical problems.

During the ECOFIN on 22 September the Belgian Presidency will ask the Commission to start assessing the feasibility of the 'Tobin tax'. Mr Reynders wishes to enlarge the debate to examine what measures can be considered to avoid monetary speculation, but not all stakeholders agree a Tobin tax is the answer.