An Analysis of the Financial Transaction Tax in the Context of the EU Enhanced Cooperation Procedure

Abstract:

This article aims to provide a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the constitutional issues surrounding the European Union’s Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). This analysis will firstly explore the enhanced cooperation procedure (ECP) used to resurrect the abandoned 2011 Commission proposal, as well as a discussion of the conditions – procedural and substantive – which the procedure must satisfy. To what extent, if at all, use of the ECP in this situation represents a changing constitutional tide will be considered. The most recent FTT proposal and its objectives will then be analysed, with a focus on the most controversial aspect of the tax: its extraterritoriality stemming from its adoption of the residence and issuance principles. This article will conclude that not only is this FTT unlikely to attain its objectives, but that the current use of ECP as a method of differentiated integration has been inconsistent and, at times, inappropriate.