EU financial transaction group to meet on Monday
A group of 10 European Union countries, including Greece, that support a common financial transactions tax (FTT) will meet on Monday in Luxembourg to discuss the issue but no breakthrough is expected yet, two EU officials said on Friday.
The introduction of a single tax on financial transactions across the EU countries that adopt it has been debated by EU finance ministers for more than five years but countries remain divided on how to apply the levy.
The group has repeatedly set deadlines that have not been met.
After having pushed back the latest target of reaching a deal in September, the meeting in October was seen as important in view of a possible compromise by the end of the year.
“It will be a rather short meeting. I don’t expect any outcome from this debate,” an EU official involved in the talks said on Friday.
A second official said the meeting will assess technical work carried out by two expert groups set up in June, but is not meant to reach decisions.
The countries that support an FTT are Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
[Reuters]
