mr president the ecr recognises that the financial services industry cannot expect to escape from the crisis scot free
enormous damage has been done through reckless behaviour and the cost of sorting out the mess must be borne by those involved
furthermore new systems must be put in place to ensure that this never happens again and that funds are available for emergency purposes to stabilise systemic failures
it is possible that in the context of international agreement the time has come for some financial transaction tax
whatever the doubts about the practicalities of putting such a system into place no measure should be ruled out as long as it has the backing of the whole international community and as long as safeguards are there to ensure that it works and cannot be avoided
most of today's resolution has our backing but we take exception to paragraph seven for two reasons
first of all we oppose new tax-raising powers for the european union
this paragraph carefully worded though it may be suggests that this is a desired outcome
secondly the whole point of a financial transaction tax should not be to raise money for pet projects no matter how worthy
instead it must be to ensure future financial stability and to protect against the kind of events that have caused the recent economic chaos
this resolution as it stands is too focused on a transaction-tax solution implies eu not member state tax-raising powers suggests utilising the money raised for funding development and climate-change projects instead of stabilising the financial sector and finally suggests that an eu tax might be feasible without global participation
for these reasons we have voted against this specific motion for a resolution
