Ten EU Members Plan FTT

The ten nations politically agreed in the gradual application of the initial FTT, by January 1, 2016.  After the Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting, Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras praised the agreement. He highlighted the Council's efforts and stated that they will continue to progress on a technical level. Stournaras added that the residing Greek EU Presidency is apt to work on an expert level, if needed.

FTT will firstly be implemented with share taxing and certain sectors of derivative financial products by the January 1st timeline, at the very latest. The participating EU members included in today's activities were: Greece, Belgium, Austria, France, Germany, Estonia, Italy, Spain, Slovakia and Portugal.

Additionally in today's Economic and Financial Affairs Council meeting, the Greek Presidency greeted the last Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive adoption. The Finance Minister stated: "Together with two other key texts recently approved by the European Parliament (the Single Resolution Mechanism and the recast Directive on Deposit Guarantee Schemes), the BRRD completes the legislative work underpinning the Banking Union and constitutes a very important achievement in restoring confidence in the EU's banks after the recent financial crisis".

Yannis Stournaras further commented, "Establishing these common rules for a clear and comprehensive bank recovery and resolution regime, the BRRD is crucial for ensuring long term financial and economic stability, and for reducing the potential costs of possible future financial crises for public funding and for taxpayers".