French, German ministers want progress on FTT by May
Photo © Lee Torrens - Fotolia
(BERLIN) - French and German finance ministers insisted Monday they aim to at least have the "first stage" of a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) in place before European elections in May.
"We are determined to take a first step on the FTT still during this legislative term," Germany's Wolfgang Schaeuble told a joint press conference with his visiting French counterpart, Michel Sapin.
Sapin, who was appointed last Wednesday in a government reshuffle, spoke of a "need" to create the tax, saying he wanted implementation of "a first package of measures" before the elections for the European Parliament at the end of May.
France and Germany have won support from nine other EU member states for the FTT which they champion as a way of making banks and investment houses pay for the excesses which led to the 2008 financial crash and the debt crisis.
However the negotiations between the 11 countries have made little progress of late in the face of intense lobbying against the tax.
Britain, which is home to one of the world's largest financial markets in London, is hostile, seeing the FTT both as interference with the national right to decide taxation, and as counterproductive since it could drive business away.
The FTT would apply to any transaction, anywhere in the world, carried out by a financial entity which is based in one of the 11 EU states which have so far agreed to implement it.