Sven Giegold
Mitglied der Grünen/EFA-Fraktion im Europaparlament

Sprecher Europagruppe Grüne

Pressemitteilung von ATTAC zur Einführung der FTT in 11 EU-Ländern

Die EU-Wirtschafts- und Finanzminister haben sich im Januar darauf geeinigt, eine Finanztransaktionssteuer in 11 EU-Ländern in verstärkter Zusammenarbeit einzuführen. Damit sind wir jetzt kurz vor einem Durchbruch bei der Besteuerung von Finanztransaktionen.

Dazu eine Pressemitteilung des globalisierungskritischen Netzwerkes Attac:

Press Release on Ecofin Decision approving FTT under Enhanced Cooperation

The European ATTAC Network welcomes the decision of the ECOFIN of January 22 approving the Financial Transaction Tax moving forward under the Enhanced Cooperation Procedure involving 11 Member States of the European Union.

As the initial promoter of this tax the ATTAC movement considers this decision as a victory, because it results from a more than 10 years long campaign for it made by ATTAC.  Many other organizations have been working on this idea,  although sometimes with important differences regarding  the concept.

Fifteen years ago the international organization ATTAC began its campaing to have this global tax over the finance implemented, which, in Attac’s view, should not pursue revenue purposes as its main objective, but it should be part of a new global tax system for financing global common goods acting as a regulatory, distributive and penalizing tool against financial speculation.

ATTAC emphasizes that this proposal had a high symbolic value: we proved that alternative policies are possible, by proposing a measure which, at the time it was proposed, was generally considered as impossible to impose, and by showing that, with the determined efforts of citizens, it can be imposed on governments. Today the demonstration is done has been shown.

This result is especially important in these days of crisis and austerity policies, which are presented as inevitable, even if their inefficiency and absurdity has already been proven. 

What happened in the case of the Financial Transaction Tax should raise the hopes of all those fighting against austerity and proposing real alternatives to it. These alternatives are possible, they will be adopted, provided citizens believe in them and fight with determination to impose them.

The struggle on that tax is not finished. The devil is in the details as nothing is set in stone regarding the application mechanisms and target areas. Negotiations will start after this decision but plans to set a tax rate of 0.1% on transactions in stocks and bonds are positive. It is worth pointing out the planned inclusion of all products and financial actors, including hedge funds, are included and that the tax will be charged in the country where the transfers take place. But there are serious shortcomings regarding the proposals discussed at the moment: The proposed tax rate on derivatives is very low -only 0.01% – which limits its ability to stem and prevent speculation and volatility, and its application does not include currency transactions, leaving without taxation a highly speculative and extremely volatile market that moves 4 trillion euros a day. The European ATTAC Network will continue to apply pressure on decision makers regarding these points.

ATTAC acknowledges that given the depth of the present crisis, few problems will be solved by this tax in itself. Further measures are needed to serve the purpose of rebalancing or redefining transfers within economic zones in Europe, even if a large amount of resources could be secured via the FTT. Moreover other measures will be needed to eradicate the current economic, social and political crisis in Europe including the complete eradication of tax havens and a global reform of the tax systems tending towards taxing income from capital at an equal or higher level than income from labour work.

The European ATTAC Network continues to propose and fight for realistic alternatives to current policies, together with other social movements throughout Europe. The ALTERSUMMIT process, which will gather European social movements in June in Athens, the birthplace of Democracy, is an important milestone in this regard.

The European ATTAC Network

Hier der Link zu einer Pressemitteilung von Attac France zur Einführung der FTT in 11 EU-Ländern.