Bloomberg: Austria, Belgium join German-French push for transaction tax

01 October 2012

Austria and Belgium have joined a request from France and Germany to move forward on a financial transaction tax among a sub-set of European Union nations, EU spokeswoman Emer Traynor said today.

The Brussels-based European Commission has received a formal request from Austria and been notified that Belgium’s is being prepared, said Traynor, a spokeswoman for EU Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semeta. France and Germany sent a letter to begin the process on September 28.

Nine countries must sign on for the Commission to begin designing a transaction tax under the EU’s “enhanced cooperation” procedures. In June, European Union finance ministers cleared the way for a smaller group of countries to proceed after it became evident there would not be unanimous support for an agreement among all 27 countries in the bloc.

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