Euractiv: Austrian federal Economy Chamber in favour of an FTT
Christoph Leitl, head of the country's federal Economy Chamber, tells EurActiv why he thinks an FTT is preferable:
The future of finance will be the focus of a session of the European Business Summit, which opens in Brussels today (30 June).
In Brussels, the Austrian Economy Chamber has been lobbying for a financial transaction tax instead of a bank levy, as it believes the latter would eventually trickle down to investors and consumers.
"One thing is certain: an FTT is preferable to a bank levy, as it would dampen speculation and would provide more stability in the financial sector," Leitl said.
"A bank levy is a bank customer levy. Those who invest and buy consumer goods and those who should urgently revive the economy will have to carry the burden," he continued.
Leitl, who has been called a visionary by policymakers in Austria, recently raised eyebrows by backing plans to introduce the tax on financial transactions only in Austria. He pointed out this could tempt other European countries to follow suit and do the same.
"I am against pointing fingers but I think we should have a fair tax system that does not only rely on the real economy," he argued, saying the traditional argument of basing taxes on an immobile real economy would not prevent the same build-up of risk that led to the financial crisis.
Austria's government has also been trying to push other EU countries to back the FTT, with some success at a recent summit when countries belatedly agreed to explore the viability of the tax.
But at home, Austria's ruling coalition disagrees on whether it should endeavor to make the tax policy without other countries on board.
The Social Democratic Party, SPÖ, is going to try to push the proposal through the Austrian parliament while the Conservative People's Party, the ÖVP, is not convinced that a national measure would make economic sense.
Leitl advocates a tax on certain large sums only, like derivatives used by companies to shore up necessary capital, which would feed into a European Monetary Fund, the EU's theoretical answer to its global IMF blueprint.
A proposal for a European Monetary Fund drawn up by the European Commission faces one great obstacle as many worry that such a fund would require a change to the EU's Lisbon Treaty, an eventuality not many member states have an appetite for given the political upheaval the treaty's ratification caused in 2009.