EU: The Struggle for a Financial Transaction Tax

The EU project for a financial transaction tax may be scaled back given that EU leaders are still debating how and when to implement it. A Reuters report published May 30 suggests that the 11 eurozone countries that were supposed to implement the tax in early 2014 are currently considering a 90 percent reduction of the tax and a more gradual implementation mechanism. This report follows several months of debate within the European Union on the technical aspects of the project. These setbacks are not tantamount to failure, but they are a reminder of just how difficult reaching a consensus can be in the European Union.