| Three good reasons to say no to Tobin or to whatever EU tax |
| Written by Gionata Pacor |
| Tuesday, 29 December 2009 00:07 |
|
Without a common language, some members of the Convention tried to replace it with some common cultural and religious roots and asked to put in the European Constitution a call to some Jewish-Christian roots. That suggestion was rejected, as happened to the European Constitution itself some time later. Somehow we have now the Lisbon Treaty and we face a new attempt to strengthen our feeling of European Union membership. And that is the worst attempt we could imagine: an European tax. In the last few weeks, both the President of the European Commission Barroso and the new President of the European Union Van Rompuy talked about an European tax. The most federalist countries are excited about it, while countries like Great Britain, which always opposed an excessive lost of power in favour of the Union, will probably oppose it. But the compromise could be the introduction of a Tobin Tax (which is named after Nobel prize winning economist James Tobin, who proposed it 1972), that is a tax on financial transitions. Such a tax has recently been suggested also by Mr Gordon Brown, but 4 years ago an European Tobin Tax was already suggested by the Austrian European Presidency, while Tremonti, Italy's Treasury Minister, put forward his idea of an European public debt and of the emission of Eurobonds. Now it seems like time has come for this tax: it weighs right on that financial world who is charged with being liable for the crisis and the tax incomes could cover the deficits created with anti-crisis measures. We, Freedom Committees, are against a new tax, in particular against a Tobin Tax, for several reasons. First of all, because we think that Governments, not markets, cause the economic crisis: with their programs, their nationalizations, their “stimulus plan” and their subsidizing, moving enormous quantities of money in arbitrary ways. Then, we are against this tax because even a small tax on financial transactions might block the global chain of action markets, and inside of Europe it means a limitation of the free movement of capital. Moreover, financial market provides reliable information to all operators, and a tax on transactions would reduce this flow of information, which allows to control the companies and force them to have virtuous behaviours. Finally, we are against an European tax (against an European Tobin Tax or any kind of tax) because it doesn’t make us feel more European citizens. Even if we want a federal Europe, we don’t need federal taxes. A common identity cannot be built with European taxes or with European public debts: on the contrary, we can build it by guaranteeing peace and liberty to citizens. Peace is assured between the member States of the European Union. But the liberties, most of all the economic liberties, are continuously threatened by individual States and by the Union itself. |
Since the birth of Nation-States, national identity has been based on common language and on artificial symbols such as flag, national anthem, public holidays and so on. Some years ago, as the Convention discussed the new European Constitution, it had to face a question: what makes us feel European? The members of the Convention did their best to find something that was able to give to the European Citizens a feeling of membership, to find an identity. Not a national one, but an European one.