German Official Backs Tax Vetoed by Britain

“A financial transaction tax would be positive,” said the foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, emphasizing that if there were such a tax, “we would have to include all the European Union” and not just those members that use the euro.

His remarks were implicitly directed at Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, who irritated his European Union colleagues at the summit meeting by vetoing proposed treaty changes in part because he felt they lacked safeguards for the future of the City, London’s financial district and a vital economic engine for Britain. Mr. Cameron’s actions left Britain isolated, and Mr. Westerwelle’s remarks suggested that the veto still would not insulate London from changes undertaken by other European Union members.

In an interview with the editorial board of The New York Times, Mr. Westerwelle also said the door was still open for Britain to join the new economic stability pact that Germany and all other European Union members are going ahead with regardless of Britain’s decision. “It is a standing invitation for Great Britain,” he said.

The idea of a financial transactions tax, a tiny levy that would be collected on trades of stocks, bonds and other types of securities and then used to help the economically disadvantaged, has attracted enormous interest in Europe. Nicknamed the Robin Hood tax, the proposal has been heralded as a novel approach for redistributing at least a small portion of the profits amassed by wealthy investors, a disparity that helped to energize the Occupy Wall Street movement. The proposed tax has an array of influential advocates, including the leaders of France and Germany, as well as philanthropists like George Soros and Bill Gates.

Mr. Westerwelle forcefully defended the outcome of the summit meeting in Brussels, which embraced Germany’s recipe of austerity and discipline for combating the economic crisis afflicting the euro zone’s troubled members — a crisis that has called into question the viability of the euro itself. Under the agreement, the euro zone’s 17 member governments will accept more oversight and control of national budgets, at the expense of their own sovereignty.

“From the German perspective, this is a debt crisis, not a growth crisis,” he said.

Asked about Western concerns that Iran may be close to building a nuclear weapon, despite Iranian denials, Mr. Westerwelle reiterated Germany’s position that a nuclear-armed Iran would be unacceptable. He also described the report issued last month by the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran’s possible work on a weapon as “alarming.”

But he said it was premature to discuss new sanctions on Iran that would prohibit dealings with Iran’s central bank, saying that “sanctions only work well if many countries participate.”

He declined to discuss legislation approved by the United States Senate this month that would penalize foreign banks that engage in transactions with the Iran central bank by denying them access to the American market.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/world/europe/guido-westerwelle-german-official-backs-tax-vetoed-by-britain.html?partner=rss&emc=rss