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France and Germany still need the backing of a number of member states to put in place a European Union financial transaction tax (FTT), despite claims from French President François Hollande that the tax is "now effective", EurActiv.fr reports. For over a year now, Paris and Berlin have been battling to persuade their European partners to put in place a FTT. … A working group, launched by Germany and France in March 2012, continues to discuss the proposal. Poland and Austria say they will take part in the project. To form a robust cooperation agreement, a minimum of nine countries...

A threshold-breaking eleven member states have agreed to push ahead with a financial transactions tax, but the political breakthrough is tempered by a number of unanswered questions. "Today we have received a clear and very welcome signal that there will be enough member states on board for an EU Financial Transactions Tax," EU tax commissioner Algirdas Semeta said Tuesday (9 October). He promised to come forward with a decision in November, but noted that at least nine countries have to formally make a request in order to trigger a legislative process for a splinter group of member states. So far,...

European Union officials are examining legal options to side-step a possible British veto on the bloc’s long-term budget, in a bid to weaken Prime Minister David Cameron's trump card in the talks, diplomats said. Britain is one of several net contributors including Germany and France demanding deep reductions to EU spending plans worth more than €1 trillion between 2014-2020, which they say are at stark odds with austerity-driven spending cuts at home. Under pressure from Euroskeptics in his own party to deliver a real terms cut, officials believe Cameron is the most likely to make good on a threat to...

Does Britain belong in the European Union? There are plenty both in the United Kingdom and on the Continent who have their doubts. Now, with the debate over the EU’s next budget raging, a European Commissioner has challenged London to decide. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel is also losing her patience over the squabble. … On Friday, European Commissioner for Financial Programming and Budget Janusz Lewandowski, Poland’s representative in the EU’s executive, said it was time for Britain to make a fundamental decision regarding its future in the European Union. “Of course there are limits,” he said in an interview...

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. He has proposed a cut of €75 billion...

The proposal to introduce a tax on financial transactions (FTT)—or Tobin tax—across a number of EU countries by January 2014 is under pressure as Italy wants fundamental changes to the plan and the UK has launched a legal challenge in the European Court of Justice. A statement on Saturday (20 April) from Italy’s permanent representative in Brussels, Ferdinando Nelli Feroci, said: “Transactions in state bonds should be excluded from the taxed instruments in the proposed Tobin tax.” He described this as a red-line, non-negotiable issue for Italy. … The plan was requested through “enhanced cooperation” by 11 countries, including Italy,...

Around 400,000 Britons live or own homes in the south of Spain, which is suffering a deep recession that is hampering Madrid’s attempts to balance the public finances and stave off a bail-out. Senior figures in Germany are now arguing that some richer home owners in countries like Spain, Portugal and Greece have so far avoided paying their fair share to rescue the euro, leaving Germany paying too much. Taxes on property or other assets would mark a significant change in Europe’s approach to funding bail-outs for eurozone members. Until now, the cost of rescue packages for countries like Ireland,...

France’s experiment with the Tobin Tax has proved a spectacular flop. Its finance ministry admits that the scattershot levy on financial transactions has raised just a third of the money expected since August. Total takings will be a paltry €800 million ($1.04 billion) in 2013, but that overlooks the much greater damage inflicted on French finance, industry and the government’s own tax base. “France is shooting itself in the foot,” said Paul-Henri de La Porte du Theil, head of French finance industry AFG. … The House of Lords EU Committee says the Tobin Tax will have “far-reaching adverse consequences” for...

EU tax commissioner Algirdas Semeta has cast doubt on reports that his Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), also known as the Tobin Tax, is being unraveled by member states. The Reuters news agency and the Wall Street Journal this week cited “senior EU officials” as saying some of the 11 countries set to take part are having second thoughts. Semeta’s original proposal envisaged a 0.1 percent tax on share and bond trades and a 0.01 percent levy on derivatives trading from 1 January, designed to take €35 billion ($45 billion) out of the pockets of banks and traders into national treasuries....

A financial transactions tax (FTT) for 11 EU countries would be illegal as it affects the tax sovereignty of others, according to an opinion by the legal service of the EU Council in Brussels. The European Commission says the tax is in line with EU law, however. In the leaked document, seen by Reuters and Financial Times, the lawyers serving EU member states say the proposed financial transactions tax “exceeds member states’ jurisdiction for taxation under the norms of international customary law as they are understood by the Union.” The 14-page legal opinion concludes that the proposal is “not compatible”...

The French National Assembly’s finance committee has green-lighted an amendment to the country’s draft 2014 budget law, significantly increasing the amount of aid funds that can be generated from the upcoming financial transactions tax (FTT), EurActiv.fr reports. An unexpected proposal for taxing financial transactions—amendment 23—was adopted on Tuesday (15 October) by the French Parliament’s finance committee during its examination of the country’s draft budget law for next year. … But the proposal is viewed less positively by the French Finance Ministry, which wants to protect the interests of French banks. Financial market operators, such as NYSE Euronext and Paris Europlace,...

The European Court of Justice on Wednesday (30 April) rejected a UK legal challenge to plans by eleven countries to set up a financial transactions tax (FTT). The main thrust of London’s opposition to the tax relates to the so-called “residence” and “issuance” principle in the proposed bill, which means that some traders operating outside the FTT-11 would still be liable to pay the levy. The UK, which has the largest financial services sector in the EU, says that it would be hit by the tax as a result. But since the proposal has not been agreed, the UK case...

German and French politicians are calling for a quantum leap in how the EU’s single currency is run, proposing an embryo eurozone treasury equipped with a eurozone finance chief, single budget, tax-raising powers, pooled debt liabilities, a common monetary fund, and separate organization and representation within the European parliament. They also propose that all teenagers in the EU be given the chance to spend a subsidized six months in another European country. In an article published in the Guardian and other European newspapers, Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s social democratic leader and vice-chancellor in Angela Merkel’s coalition government, and Emmanuel Macron, France’s...

Angela Merkel and David Cameron are due to meet on Friday to discuss the eurozone crisis further. Tensions between Germany and Britain over how to handle the crisis in the eurozone deepened after allies of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, claimed she would not allow the UK to "get away" with its refusal to back a European financial transactions tax. Speaking ahead of a meeting between Merkel and David Cameron on Friday, the parliamentary leader of her Christian Democratic Union said "Britain had a responsibility to make Europe a success". Volker Kauder, at the CDU conference in Leipzig, said: "I...

David Cameron is at the centre of a furious row with Nicolas Sarkozy after Paris tried to isolate the prime minister at the EU summit by suggesting that Britain is seeking to exempt the City of London from all European regulations. In a move dismissed by officials in Brussels as an attempt to set Britain up as the fall guy, senior French figures said Cameron wanted an opt out from EU financial services regulation. The French were said to have found themselves isolated in their attempt to limit an agreement on tough fiscal rules for the single currency just to...

Occupy Edmonton protesters held a march on October 29 to call for a Robin Hood tax. They are calling on G20 leaders to immediately impose a 0.05 per cent tax on banks for financial transactions and currency trades. They claim that profits made from the tax could go back to programs to benefit society. "It's a good way to generate some revenue to deal with global poverty, to deal with climate change," spokesperson Chelsea Taylor told CTV News. According to the group the Canadian government has shown a lack of leadership on a Robin Hood tax. "Finance minster Jim Flaherty...

Rewriting the U.S. Constitution. Imposing a "Robin Hood tax" on most financial transactions worldwide with the goal of taking from the "rich" to give to the "poor." Giving the Federal Reserve permission to regulate interest rates on savings accounts. These are just some of the policies endorsed by a group backing a "Day of Rage" targeting Wall Street and U.S. capitalism this Saturday. Read more: 'Robin Hood' aims at Wall Street next http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=344285#ixzz1XxCr8vNi -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'Robin Hood' aims at Wall Street next 'Day of Rage' targets capitalism, demands new U.S. Constitution -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: September 12, 2011 2:56 pm Eastern By...

In what seems to be a weekly, if not daily, number of protest marches around the globe recently, this weeks' March 26th “March for the Alternative” is the latest effort to stir the pot from the global powers-that-be. As we have discovered in recent weeks and months, these movements and revolutions are given the appearance of the grassroot actions of frustrated citizens of the world, yet they always seem to come back to the same handful of people and groups. The “March for the Alternative” is being well publicized by Movements.org (you know, the same people who work so well...

In a recent post covering a forthcoming London protest by UK Uncut dubbed the "March for the Alternative," NRB's Michelle Horstman introduced us to the Robin Hood Tax. It's pretty much what it sounds like, a proposal to seize wealth from banks and redistribute it to "fight poverty" and "tackle climate change." UK Uncut has garnered much attention as of late for its unconventional protest tactics, which is to say its willingness to use force to disrupt lawful trade. Obviously, the folks at UK Uncut and their allies regard themselves as modern day Merry Men. They are certainly willing to...