Macron And The EU Financial Transaction Tax

Background
The objective of the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) proposal was to ensure that the financial sector made a fair contribution to national tax revenues. It was also intended to discourage transactions that did not enhance the efficient allocation of resources by the financial markets.

The European Commission initially published a legislative proposal in 2011 for an EU-wide FTT. However, after considerable opposition to this from certain EU Member States, the Commission tabled a proposal in February 2013 aimed at introducing an FTT in eleven Member States through the instrument of 'enhanced cooperation'.

The participating countries were initially Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia. Following Estonia's formal withdrawal on 16 March 2016, ten Member States continued their work in the negotiations on enhanced cooperation procedure on the proposed directive.

The adoption of the directive required unanimous agreement of the participating countries (within the Council), after consulting the European Parliament.

The European Commission had suggested in September 2016 that it hoped that the proposal could be adoipted by the end of 2016.

However, this proved not to be possible. A ECOFIN report submitted to the European Council in June 2017 reiterated that further work at the Council and its preparatory bodies was still required, before a final agreement on the dossier can be reached.
Article suggested that French President Emmanuel Macron had turned against in the summer of 2017 to the adoption of a EU Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) legislative proposal. Authors speculated on the reasons for this and suggested that the reason probably was to do with France's efforts to attract financial interests to Paris after the United Kingdom left the European Union.

President Macron himself however said that he still supported the concept of a EU FTT but it needed to make sense and be effective in a Brexit context.

Reuters, 13.07.17: Macron says European financial transaction tax must make sense http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-france-tax-ftt-idUKKBN19Y1B7

ESO: Background information: FTT to be pushed through ‘by the end of the year’ / FTT blockage illustrates pitfalls of multi-speed Europe (2016-2017 et al) http://www.europeansources.info/record/ftt-to-be-pushed-through-by-the-end-of-the-year-ftt-blockage-illustrates-pitfalls-of-multi-speed-europe/

EurActiv, 11.07.17: French backtracking on FTT undermines development commitments https://www.euractiv.com/section/development-policy/news/french-backtracking-on-ftt-undermines-development-commitments/

Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament: News, 11.07.17: S&Ds slam French U-turn on FTT http://www.socialistsanddemocrats.eu/newsroom/sds-slam-french-u-turn-ftt

EUR-Lex: Proposal for a Council Directive implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of financial transaction tax - COM /2013 / 71 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2013:0071:FIN

European Parliament: Legislative Train: Financial Transaction Tax http://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/theme-deeper-and-fairer-internal-market-with-a-strengthened-industrial-base-taxation/file-financial-transaction-tax

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