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“Financial Transaction Tax Rears Its Head Once Again”
by EUobserver - ANDREW WILLIS   
November 10th, 2009

 BRUSSELS – A call by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown over the weekend for a global tax on financial transactions received some support in Brussels on Monday (9 November), although strong opposition from the US and other quarters looks likely to bury the idea again.

Former Danish prime minister and current president of the Party of European Socialists, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, said he wanted to "hail Gordon Brown on this courageous speech."

A spokeswoman for the European Commission restated the position held by president Jose Manuel Barroso that the tax idea has "potential," but that "by its very nature such an initiative would need to be implemented globally."

Last month EU leaders asked the commission to examine ways of "innovative financing," including the feasibility of a tax on financial transactions, to help less-developed countries and possibly help reduce national budget deficits.

However the surprise support for the initiative expressed by Mr Brown at a meeting of G20 finance ministers meeting on Saturday in St. Andrews, Scotland, related to possible mechanisms to fund future bank bailouts.

In the face of rising back bonuses, governments are determined that financial institutions must pay for their own bailouts in the future.

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