The black-yellow coalition has agreed on an initiative to introduce a Europe-wide financial market tax. The coalition committee had agreed on it, said Union parliamentary group leader Volker Kauder and the FDP parliamentary group leader Birgit Homburger after consultations in Berlin. In the joint resolution, the federal government is called upon to "work at European and global level for an effective financial market tax – that is, financial transaction tax or financial activity tax." Both models should therefore be tested.
Financial markets should share in the costs of the crisis
"We want the euro to stabilize, but we also want the financial markets to participate in this stabilization," said Kauder. The Union was able to convince the FDP that there must be an instrument beyond the bank levy that curbs "the unrestrained hunger of financial jugglers," said CSU regional group leader Hans-Peter Friedrich after the agreement. The FDP advocated regulation of financial market products on an international level. "Those who speculate to the detriment of taxpayers must be drawn to the cost of the crisis," said Homburger.
In the debate about the different models of a financial transaction tax and a financial activity tax, the coalition committee did not make a clear decision. FDP parliamentary group leader Homburger said in the evening that the discussion should not be narrowed down to an instrument such as the transaction tax, where it was questionable whether it would actually have the desired success. According to the parliamentary manager of the Union parliamentary group, Peter Altmaier, a clear majority of the board of the Union parliamentary group had previously spoken out in favor of the financial transaction tax. In coalition circles it was also said that the FDP had given up the previous resistance to the financial transaction tax by approving the decision.