Global Policy Forum

The "Capital Taxation, Fiscal Management, Globalisation" interparty group of the European Parliament, is very happy over the announcement made today by the future Belgian Presidency of the European Union that the Tobin tax is being placed on the agenda of the ECOFIN Council to be held on 22 and 23 September at Liege.

The announcement was made on the occasion of the Economists' Presentations on the Tobin tax, organised for today by the interparty group which were followed by a Round Table on the Belgian Presidency at which Charles Picque, Minister for the Economy and Scientific Research, Guy Moens, Belgian Senator, Susan George, Vice-president of ATTAC France and Sophie Charlier, representative of the Belgian networks for action against financial speculation, were present..

In the course of the Economists' Presentations, Professor Anthony CLUNIES-ROSS of Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Bruno JETIN, Reader (Maitre de Conference ) at Paris XIII University, and Professor Paul Bernd SPAHN of Goethe University, Frankfurt ,explained to an audience composed of European deputies and representatives of ONGs from various European countries the different technical possibilities for the taxation of foreign currency on the international market Professor Spahn, who has been an adviser to the IMF, presented his tax proposal on two levels, first a tax of the Tobin type ,at a very low rate (0.02%), which would free up resources in the order of 60 billion dollars annually, or rather more than the current amount of public aid for development and ,second , another tax inspired by the mechanisms of the old "European monetary snake", which would be at a very high rate and would become chargeable when the basic rate of a currency exited violently from a fixed level of fluctuation. The economists have shown how the taxation of exchange transactions could be implemented unilaterally.

The Professor of Law at the Free University of Brussels, Lieven DENYS, has countered the European Commission's arguments concerning the alleged incompatibility of a Tobin tax with the European Treaties by showing that such a law could be drafted in conformity with article 93 of the EC Treaty. It has been pointed out elsewhere that the independence of the European Central Bank (ECB) would not serve as an argument against the tax, the ECB being responsible for monetary policy whereas policy on exchange rates remains within the competence of the Council which is entitled to require the ECB to implement such a measure.

"There are no further academic or technical arguments against the introduction of a tax to thwart currency speculation which destroys the means of existence of businesses and entire countries", declared Glyn Ford, MEP (RU, Labour party), secretary of the interparty group at the end of the discussions.

"What we need now are plans and concrete projects regarding the implementation of such a tax and the optimum level at which it/they should be levied, in order to allow for the generation of sufficient revenue to meet the immense needs which face the countries of the south in matters of health, education and infra-structure and to reduce the great poverty affecting 1.2 billion people who live on less than a dollar a day" added Harlem Desir, MEP (France, socialist party) President of the interparty group.

In answer to the appeal put forward by the ONGs, particularly 11.11.11, ATTAC and the Belgian action networks against financial speculation, we are hoping that tens of thousands of people will demonstrate peacefully in favour of the Tobin tax at Liege in September 2001 at the time of the ECOFIN Council. The Member States should not block the initiative of the Belgian Presidency but should on the contrary seize this opportunity to jointly promote within the heart of the international institutions the establishment of a tax on financial transactions.

Translation: Prudence Dwyer, volunteer translator

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