“(Reuters) – Germany, France and nine other euro zone countries got a go-ahead on Tuesday to implement a tax on trading, despite the reservations of financial centers such as London and Luxembourg that are worried it could drive business out of Europe.
EU finance ministers gave their approval at a meeting in Brussels, allowing 11 states to pursue a financial transactions tax. The 11 are: Germany,France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Belgium, Estonia, Greece, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The levy, based on an idea proposed by U.S. economist James Tobin more than 40 years ago but little considered since, is symbolically important in showing that politicians, who have fumbled their way through five years of financial crisis, are getting to grips with the banks blamed for causing it.
“This is a major milestone in tax history,” Algirdas Semeta, the European commissioner in charge of tax policy, told reporters after ministers backed the scheme.
Under EU rules, a minimum of nine countries can cooperate on legislation using a process called enhanced cooperation as long as a majority of the EU’s 27 countries give their permission.
Britain, which has its own duty on the trading of shares, abstained in the vote, along with Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and Malta, said an EU official attending the meeting….”
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