Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici/AFP
Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici told BFMTV and RMC radio that an analysis would be carried out in 2013 and the measure would be applied from the end of 2014 “without a doubt, I hope,” he added.
“We need two years no doubt, so it will be from 2015 (that it could be introduced) unless some states decide to go ahead unilaterally,” he said.
“Overall the tax could generate tens of billions of euros,” he said, describing the decision on Tuesday as “historic.”
EU finance ministers allowed 11 states to work out details of how the tax will work, but have not given the final green light for the controversial measure to be imposed.
Moscovici said he thought that the proceeds should probably be directed towards the EU budget rather than to national budgets, “but we have the time to discuss this.”
The first countries to go with the proposal are Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain.
