Malta will be examining a fresh proposal tabled in Brussels to introduce a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) in 10 EU member states, which do not include the island.
Sources close to the Finance Ministry told The Times that government officials were already studying the finer text of this proposal to ensure it would not have any negative impact on Malta’s flourishing financial sector.
Following a declaration made by 10 member states, under the so-called enhanced cooperation mechanism, the Commission proposed that exchanges of shares and bonds would be taxed at 0.1 per cent and derivative contracts at 0.01 per cent.
Originally, the EU executive wanted this tax to be introduced across the whole of the bloc. However, objections from a number of the 27 member states, including Malta, have forced the Commission to abandon that plan and move on to a second option: introducing the tax partially in the willing member states.
Brussels argues that introducing an FTT is beneficial to the EU as it taxes an important economic sector that is currently under-taxed.
On the other hand, those against say they will only support its introduction if it is introduced globally first, to create a level playing field for the EU.
Welcoming yesterday’s proposal, Commission president José Manuel Barroso said the tax could raise millions of euros of much needed revenue for member states in times of difficulty.
“This is about fairness,” he said. “We need to ensure the costs of the crisis are shared by the financial sector instead of shouldered by ordinary citizens.”
The proposal will have to be approved by member states through a qualified majority and receive the European Parliament’s consent.
Later the Commission intends to table a substantive proposal on the harmonised FTT for discussion and adoption by participating member states.
The Commission said at this stage it would carefully examine whether some adjustments were required to reflect the smaller number of states applying it.
So far, member states declaring their readiness to introduce an FTT are Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, Slovenia, Greece, Italy, Spain and Slovakia. All these countries are members of the eurozone.