Van Rompuy: financial tax to form part of EU budget

EU Observer ^ | 11-16 | BENJAMIN FOX

[ExxonPatrolUs]

BRUSSELS - The much vaunted EU financial transaction tax (FTT) is set to be hard-wired into the EU budget, with most of its revenue going directly to the EU.

A paper prepared by EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and sent to European capitals ahead of next week's EU budget summit, where leaders aim to agree a mandate on the budget framework for 2014-2020, would deduct FTT revenues from national contributions to the annual EU pot.

Van Rompuy put forward his ideas after private talks with EU countries' budget sherpas over the past 10 days.

(Snip)

Under Van Rompuy's plan, two thirds of FTT revenues from each country would be transferred to the EU budget, with the national contributions made by member states reduced accordingly.

Countries not using the FTT would not be affected by the change.

While the Van Rompuy paper does not spell out precise figures on the revenue expected to be generated by an FTT, the impact assessment to the Commission's original proposal estimated annual revenue of €57 billion coming from levies of 0.1 percent on bond trading and 0.01 percent on derivatives trading.

The EU budgets between 2014 and 2020 are expected to be worth around €140 billion a year on average.

Although just 11 countries have to date confirmed that they will use an FTT, with the new Dutch government currently weighing up its options, other EU countries can still block the legislation if they wish.

None has indicated that they will do so.

[B.O. Plenty]

A new tax!..

...of course....

Greedy bastards...

[bewildered]

Like rearranging deck chairs on the titanic

[Gay State Conservative]

Those in Europe who actually *work* for a living (not many,admittedly) know that the "EU" is just another one of these attached to their wallets.