Cameron Voices UK's 'No' to EU Financial Transactions Tax

UK PM David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel participating in a forum back in 2011. Photo by EPA/BGNES

The UK is strictly against the imposition of an EU financial transactions tax, said British PM David Cameron, after France announced plans for its implementation in the Union.

Over the week, key French ministers said that France and Germany had agreed to put into the agenda for the next European Council, January 30, the decision to create such a tax to control financial markets and raise revenue.

It is thought that EU leaders will seek to implement the financial transactions tax via an intergovernmental agreement, seeking to circumvent strong opposition from the UK, which has been seeking to protect financial institutions housed in London's City.

"I will veto the proposal for an EU financial transactions tax," said David Cameron in an interview for the BBC Sunday.

He added that should France wish, it is free to go it alone and introduce a financial transactions tax on its own.

This is the first time that the Tory UK PM has explicitly said he will block a decision for the EU-wide tax.

"Unless the rest of the world all agreed at the same time that we are all going to have some sort of tax then we are not going to go ahead with it," Cameron said.

The news comes just one day ahead of a meeting between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel Monday to discuss the matter.

It further aggravates a rift emerging between the UK and the rest of the EU, after Britain refused to join an agreement for a further integrated economic and fiscal union in early December 2011.

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