A group of European Union member states that are seeking to introduce a tax on financial transactions will announce a political agreement on Tuesday (6 May), according to Michel Sapin, France’s finance minister.

Following a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels on Monday (5 May), Sapin said that the proposal could be adopted within ten days – just before European Parliament elections at the end of May.
 
In 2011, the European Commission proposed a tax of between 0.01% and 0.1% on all financial transactions. The proposal was vetoed by some EU member states, including the UK, but 11 governments – including France, Germany, Italy and Spain – decided to adopt a harmonised financial transaction tax using the ‘enhanced co-operation’ procedure.
 
Negotiations between the 11 member states had been blocked by differences over how long it should take to phase in the tax and what derivatives the tax should apply to.