EU do it: The time is ripe for a financial transaction tax

Published: 12 July 2010 on Euractiv.com as an Op-Ed

As EU citizens lose faith in their leaders' resolve to make the financial sector pay for the damage it has caused, the case for implementing a financial transaction tax (FTT) ''could not be stronger,'' argues ex-investment banker Sony Kapoor, managing director of think-tank Re-Defineand an advisor to several G20 governments and the European Parliament, in an op-ed for EurActiv.

This commentary, sent exclusively to EurActiv by Sony Kapoor, is based on published op-eds in Le Monde, Financial Times Deutschland and De Volksrant.

''Dear Ms. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy,

While the US has embarked on a significant overhaul of its financial system and China has been growing at a blistering pace, the EU is lagging behind both on financial reform and on kick-starting growth. We have been too busy fighting fires partly of our own making.