Austria, Belgium Join German-French Push For Transaction Tax

Austria and Belgium have joined a request from France and Germany to move forward on a financial- transaction tax among a subset of European Union nations, EU spokeswoman Emer Traynor said today.

The Brussels-based European Commission has received a formal request from Austria and been notified that Belgium’s is being prepared, said Traynor, a spokeswoman for EU Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semeta. France and Germany sent a letter to begin the process on Sept. 28.

Nine countries must sign on for the commission to begin designing a transaction tax under the EU’s “enhanced cooperation” procedures. In June, European Union finance ministers cleared the way for a smaller group of countries to proceed after it became evident there would not be unanimous support for an agreement among all 27 countries in the bloc.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rebecca Christie in Brussels at rchristie4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net