Financial transactions tax: 11 EU states forge ahead, Malta stays out

Updated - Germany, France and nine other euro zone countries got a go-ahead today to implement a tax on trading, despite the reservations of financial centres such as London and Luxembourg (as well as Malta) that are worried it could drive business out of Europe. EU finance ministers gave their approval at a meeting in Brussels, allowing 11 states to pursue a financial transactions tax. The 11 are: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Belgium, Estonia, Greece, Slovakia and Slovenia. The levy, based on an idea proposed by U.S. economist James Tobin more than 40 years ago, is symbolically important in showing that politicians, who have fumbled their way through five years of financial crisis, are getting to grips with the banks blamed for causing it. The tax could be introduced within months. Although critics say such a tax cannot work properly unless applied world-wide or at least Europe-wide, some countries are already banking on the extra income from next year, which one EU official said could be as much as 35 billion euros annually. Under EU rules, a minimum of nine countries can cooperate on legislation using a process called enhanced cooperation as long as a...