Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2012-05-23-Speech-3-037-000"

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"Mr President, Minister, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, we have been debating this financial transaction tax (FTT) for a good number of months now, and many things have been said about it that are not correct. It has been said that an FTT would have to be global in order to be tenable, whereas in fact a number of countries around the world already have a form of transaction tax, including the United Kingdom, South Korea, Switzerland, India, Hong Kong and South Africa. It exists, and it exists in a way that is effective. It has also been said that an FTT could easily be avoided, but the European Parliament has just set out that we will supplement the principle of residence with a principle of issuance and a principle of ownership that will make the tax extremely difficult to avoid. It has been said that an FTT would cost us in terms of growth and jobs, but the Commission’s updated calculations in fact suggest the opposite. If we use the revenue wisely, if we use it for investments, then it could, in fact, boost European GDP by 0.2% to 0.4%. It has been said that ordinary pension savers would be hit when they put their money into savings plans, but alongside this is the fact that we need an incentive for pension companies, too, to choose more long-term investment models. That is, after all, what this is all about. It has also been said that a financial activities tax would be just as good as an FTT, but the fact is that an activities tax would not change the financial sector’s speculative behaviour and would not bring in the same revenues. It would also be easier to avoid than an FTT. I would therefore urge the Council and today’s summit to listen to the European Parliament, to look at our report and at some of the suggestions that we have made to improve the Commission’s proposal. I think you should listen to the very large majority of the European population who would like to see a tax on financial transactions. I think it is time to shift the debate out of the vacuum that it has been in. I believe we need to move on swiftly to enhanced cooperation, and I believe that we need an FTT that could bring in revenue and cut down on the highly speculative behaviour in the financial sector."@en1
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