Four more EU member states – including Slovakia – have expressed support for the introduction of the EU financial transaction tax (FTT) at the session of the EU finance ministers (Ecofin) in Luxembourg on Tuesday, October 9. Slovakia was represented at the session by Finance Minister Peter Kažimír, the TASR newswire wrote.
The tax – originally designed as a means to discourage 'flipping' of properties and commodities – was also approved by Estonia, Spain and Italy on the same day. Poland, which was alleged to have supported the idea initially, did not join in the end. The tax should relate to financial transactions between financial institutions. The tax rate is set to be 0.1 percent for shares and bonds and 0.01 percent for derivatives.
Consent of at least nine EU member states was needed for the FTT to go through. After Belgium, France, Germany, Portugal, Austria and Slovenia, the proposal was accepted by Greece on Monday and has since been approved by the four additional countries, meaning that there is now enough support for the introduction of the FTT. "Once the European Commission receives the official documents from at least nine of the 11 member states, it can launch the project of the so-called 'enhanced cooperation'," said EU Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Union Algiras Semeta, as quoted by TASR.
(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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