1. De: DAVID HILLMAN <dhillman@stampoutpoverty.org>
Asunto: [FTT] IMPORTANT - UK's legal challenge against the FTT
rejected by European Court of Justice
Fecha: 30 de abril de 2014 13:17:43 GMT+2
Para: FTT list AAA EU <eu-ftt-list@googlegroups.com>, ENOFAD
<finance-and-development-europe@listen.attac.de>, FTT list
<transactions-tax@googlegroups.com>
Responder a: dhillman@stampoutpoverty.org
Greetings One and All
I am very pleased to inform you that (as expected) the UK's legal
challenge against the FTT was rejected by the European Court of
Justice (ECJ) in a ruling earlier this morning.
Here is the press release from the
ECJ: http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/20
14-04/cp140065en.pdf
Here is the
Judgement: http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf
?
text=&docid=151529&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=doc&dir
=&occ=first&cid=312178
which concludes:
On those grounds, the Court hereby:
1. Dismisses the action;
2. Orders the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland to pay the costs;
3. Orders the Kingdom of Belgium, the Federal Republic of
Germany, the French Republic, the Republic of Austria, the
Portuguese Republic, the European Parliament and the
European Commission to bear their own costs.

2. Please find below our media quotes, the link to our response on
the Robin Hood website and further below a short piece in the
Financial Times flagging up this defeat for George Osborne.
This victory is brilliantly timed ahead of the expected 11 country
FTT announcement next Tuesday (6 May). It is important for
morale, confidence, momentum and impetus (i.e. the game going
our way) and we need to use this to maximum advantage both
against our opponents and internally with our own allies.
Make sure you broadcast the news far and wide.
All the very best
David
David Hillman
Stamp Out Poverty – Director
Robin Hood Tax – Steering Group
Office: 020 7837 1212
M: 00 44 (0)7951 725 878
www.stampoutpoverty.org
Skype: david.hillman500
=============================================================
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URL: http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/content/response-european-
courts-justice-rejecting-uks-legal-challenge-against-ftt
For immediate release:
In response to the European Courts of Justice
rejecting the UK's legal challenge against the FTT
David Hillman, spokesperson for the Robin Hood Tax

3. campaign, said:
"George Osborne has gone to Europe to bat
for the bankers, but he's been bowled first
ball.
"This futile legal challenge tells you all you
need to know about the Government's
misguided priorities: it would rather defend a
privileged elite in the City than support a tax
that could raise billions to tackle poverty and
protect public services.
"Instead of trying to stop other countries
taxing their financial sectors, our Government
should follow their lead, stand up to vested
interests and harness the City's excessive
wealth for the wider benefit of society.
"Complaining that the City will be hit by a
European FTT is a clear case of double
standards - almost half of the £3bn revenue
from our own FTT, the stamp duty on shares,
comes from non-UK residents."

4. For more information contact:
Simon Chouffot: 07725 879 580 simon@robinhoodtax.org.uk
Jon Slater: 07876 476 403 jslater@oxfam.org.uk
Notes to editors:
The UK's own Stamp Duty on shares, itself a financial transaction tax,
raises £3bn a year for the Exchequer - 40% of which comes from
non-UK-residents. Source: (p.8)
http://robinhoodtax.org.uk/sites/default/files/The%20Economic
%20Consequences%20of%20the%20EU%20Proposal%20for%20a
%20Financial%20Transaction%20Tax.pdf
FTTs are proven revenue raisers - seven countries, including the UK,
Switzerland and Hong Kong, already raise around £15bn annually
through long-standing financial transaction taxes (source: Persaud,
2012).
The European Courts of Justice ruling comes as the eleven
implementing countries are expected to make a joint declaration on
the scope of the FTT in the margins of the ECOFIN meeting on 6 May
and shows that the tax is on course to implementation.
The Robin Hood Tax campaign is a coalition of 117 UK organisations
including Barnardo’s, Comic Relief, Oxfam, Friends of the Earth and
Stamp Out Poverty: www.robinhoodtax.org.uk.
The campaign has more than 250,000 supporters and is endorsed by
over 1,000 economists and politicians from all main political parties.

5. The campaign is calling for financial transaction taxes to help tackle
poverty and climate change, at home and abroad.
=============================================================
============
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e3a40298-cfaf-11e3-9b2b-
00144feabdc0.html#axzz30AdfbvIB
Osborne set for defeat over
financial transaction tax
By George Parker
George Osborne is braced for defeat in the European Court
on Wednesday in his opening bid to protect the City of
London from the fallout of a so-called “Robin Hood tax” on
financial transactions.
Countries including France, Germany, Italy and Spain want
to impose a tax on financial transactions, and Mr Osborne
fears their plan would affect other member states including
Britain.
The European Court of Justice will rule on Mr Osborne’s
legal challenge to the plan, but the Treasury fears the case
will be thrown out.
However, the chancellor will insist he was right to challenge
the principle of the Tobin tax at the outset, on the grounds
that it will ensure he has a legal right to launch another
challenge at a later stage.

6. The Treasury’s submission to the European Court last year
said it accepted that the Luxembourg judges might decide
that the appeal was “premature”, because no detailed plans
for the implementation of the tax have been set out.
Defeat would be a setback for the chancellor, who is looking
to the ECJ to protect Britain and the City of London from
eurozone measures that could damage the UK’s financial
services sector.
As designed, the tax could affect many transactions
performed outside the FTT area, triggering worries about its
extraterritorial effect: so far 11 EU member states are
pursuing the plan through the so-called “enhanced co-
operation” method.
The City estimates the FTT as currently designed would lead
to a €4.4bn reduction in the value of equity and debt
holdings in the UK.
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7. The Treasury’s submission to the European Court last year
said it accepted that the Luxembourg judges might decide
that the appeal was “premature”, because no detailed plans
for the implementation of the tax have been set out.
Defeat would be a setback for the chancellor, who is looking
to the ECJ to protect Britain and the City of London from
eurozone measures that could damage the UK’s financial
services sector.
As designed, the tax could affect many transactions
performed outside the FTT area, triggering worries about its
extraterritorial effect: so far 11 EU member states are
pursuing the plan through the so-called “enhanced co-
operation” method.
The City estimates the FTT as currently designed would lead
to a €4.4bn reduction in the value of equity and debt
holdings in the UK.
--
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Groups "transactions tax" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
email to transactions-tax+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to transactions-tax@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/transactions-tax.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.