Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-11-24-Speech-3-095"
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"en.20101124.7.3-095"2
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"Mr President, the G20 is definitely a very particular formation, where all decisions should be taken by consensus. But, as our President of the Commission and the Belgian President emphasised, the process is moving on and I will just address one of the issues, namely the taxation of the financial sector.
Even if there has not been a breakthrough, it was agreed to undertake further work on innovative financing under the French Presidency. The European Union stands ready to support work in the G20 to explore and develop a financial transaction tax at global level. As I said, the G20 works by consensus and many G20 partners do not, at this stage, share our view on the issue, but we will continue to work towards a consensus.
In the meantime, we need to work on other ways of ensuring that the financial sector makes an equitable contribution through measures such as the financial activities tax. On 7 October 2010, the Commission outlined its view on this issue and it will pursue the following objectives. Firstly, we must ensure that the financial sector makes a fair contribution to public finances. This is particularly important given the support it received during the crisis. Secondly, we must make sure that any tax we put forward offers real benefits and that it will raise substantial revenues without undermining EU competitiveness. Thirdly, we must ensure that the patchwork of divergent national financial sector taxes does not create new obstacles to the single market.
On this basis, the Commission has set out a two-pronged approach to financial sector taxation. A financial activities tax appears the best way to deal with the issue in the EU. Taxing the profits and wages of the financial sector could ensure that it is taxed fairly, while also generating much-needed revenues. In addition, a financial activities tax could be less prone to the risks to EU competitiveness that other taxation tools would pose if introduced unilaterally.
A financial transaction tax should be promoted at global level. An international transaction tax on the globalised financial sector is the best way to fund international objectives in areas such as development aid and climate change. With the right choice of tax and its proper implementation, we could have an important new source of revenues while still maintaining our competitiveness.
The Commission aims to continue to work on these options in order to bring forward policy initiatives in 2011. The first step will be an impact assessment on financial sector taxation covering the ideas we have set out. In this respect, we will also take account of Member States’ analysis. The assessment of the cumulative impact on the financial sector institutions of new regulation, possible bank levies and taxes will be important before launching any proposal.
From my side, I would also mention something that is very important: the G20 very clearly took development policy objectives into its agenda. I believe it is a good sign that the G20 process, with proper determination on the part of the European Union, could deliver benefits in the interest of citizens."@en1
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