September deadline for transactions tax
Eurozone countries on Thursday gave themselves until September to agree on a long-delayed financial transactions tax despite British opposition.
The plan was first proposed in 2011 to force banks and investment houses to pay for the excesses which led to the 2008 financial crash and the eurozone debt crisis but has been mired in disagreements ever since.
On Thursday, 10 eurozone countries, including Greece, decided that enough progress on agreeing the tax had been achieved to merit a few more months of negotiations.
“There are two technical questions that still need to be addressed,” said Finance Minister Hans-Joerg Schelling of Austria, the country leading the negotiations.
“It is clear to everyone that if there is no solution in September we will probably not find one,” he added.
The proposed tax has strong backing from Germany and France, the eurozone’s top economic powers.
But the talks have dragged on amid still unresolved quibbles over the scope of the tax, which financial products would be affected and at what rate.
[AFP]
