Posted on 01/05/2012 5:01:42 PM PST by Olog-hai
BRUSSELS—A junior minister in the French government has predicted there will be an EU financial transactions tax by the end of 2012 in remarks likely to annoy fellow EU countries on many levels.
EU affairs minister Jean Leonetti spoke out on the subject on the French LCI news channel on Wednesday (4 December), saying: "It's on the agenda of the next EU summit, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel have decided it and it will be put in place before the end of 2012." …
The European Commission last September put out detailed proposals on a tax designed to capture €57 billion a year from financial companies which do business in the EU and to enter into force on 1 January 2014.
The junior minister's attempt to depict the UK as a lone or near-lone opponent of the measure rubs salt into the wound of the December EU summit in which London vetoed an EU Treaty change in an attempt to get an opt-out on the tax.
Despite his auto-correction on Sweden, he understated the extent of antipathy to the scheme.
When EU finance ministers last discussed the idea in November, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Portugal and Spain - none of which have large financial sectors - backed the idea.
But Bulgaria and the Czech Republic also voiced concerns, while Polish finance minister Jacek Rostowski at the time said the Union is "very, very divided" on it …
(Excerpt) Read more at euobserver.com ...
The socialists, of course, need the bucks. But there is an ulterior motive.
To be seen as a legitimate fiscal union there are plenty of loose ends to be tied. Financial services are abysmal.
Deutschland's DAX (Germany's puny stock exchange) is already trying to merge with NYSE.
This transaction tax specifically targets The City (London stock exchange), Europe's (Worlds?) largest and most powerful business center.
Most readers would be familiar with TV advertisements for at home stock trading ("any trade, only $7.95 at E-Trade"). Brussels socialists wants to tax every trade made in EUrotopia.
Think of it as the ultimate stamp tax.
yitbos
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