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Franco-German 'growth' plan looks to EU funds and taxes
EU Observer ^ | 20.01.12 @ 18:14 | Valentina Pop

Posted on 01/22/2012 12:31:34 PM PST by Olog-hai

BRUSSELS—A six-point plan drafted by France and Germany has suggested corporate tax "coordination," an EU financial transactions tax and the redeployment of EU funds in troubled countries as ways to spur growth and jobs.

Following Standard & Poor's recent downgrade of nine euro-countries, including France, in which the ratings agency warned that austerity and budget cuts are not the way out of recession, Paris and Berlin have teamed up once more and drafted a six-page paper called "Ways out of the crisis—strengthen growth now!"

The paper—seen by EUobserver—is supposed to be discussed at the EU summits on 30 January and 1-2 March, the latter being a meeting especially dedicated to growth and jobs.

The financial transactions tax—a pet project of French President Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of his re-election bid in April—features among the six proposals under "efforts to reinforce the framework of financial market." On Monday, hours before meeting their colleagues from the other 25 member states in Brussels, the German and French finance ministers will gather in Paris to thrash out a common position on the so-called Tobin tax, named after the Nobel prize laureate James Tobin who initially conceived it.

Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Malta and the Czech Republic oppose the tax, saying it is counterproductive in the absence of a global deal that would stop firms from fleeing to tax havens in Switzerland or the Caribbean.

Even more controversial are plans for "tax coordination" and another Franco-German proposal to be put forward by end of February on the "convergence of their corporate tax."

"European institutions and member states should accelerate the process of tax coordination in order to foster growth, removing obstacles to the functioning of the single market and preventing tax abuse and harmful tax practices," the paper says. …

(Excerpt) Read more at euobserver.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; Germany; Government; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: brexit; cityoflondon; czechrepublic; denmark; europeanunion; germany; jamestobin; malta; robinhoodtax; socialism; sweden; switzerland; taxes; tobintax; unitedkingdom

1 posted on 01/22/2012 12:31:44 PM PST by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai
So, Angela says to Sarko, "Hey, I know! We'll call it a "growth" plan."

And they laughed, and they laughed, and they laughed some more. And then they went out and met the press.

2 posted on 01/22/2012 2:30:39 PM PST by BfloGuy (The final outcome of the credit expansion is general impoverishment.)
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To: Olog-hai

All of the western European nations’ economic publications have included unreasonable tax hikes in their calls for so-called austerity.


3 posted on 01/22/2012 2:54:22 PM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the planet.)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks Olog-hai.


4 posted on 01/24/2012 6:59:12 PM PST by SunkenCiv (FReep this FReepathon!)
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