Ten EU nations get go-ahead on financial transactions tax

BRUSSELS (AFP) - The European Commission on Tuesday agreed a formal first step enabling 10 European Union nations to launch a hotly contested Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) slated to raise billions for the public purse.

After plans to launch the tax across the European Union were scuttled during months of raucous talks by Britain and others, the EU executive proposed that 10 countries in favour, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain, go ahead on their own.

The Commission said all the legal conditions to impose such an FTT had been met and that it believed the tax would not undermine the workings of the European single market which seeks to ensure a level playing field for all.

"This tax can raise billions of euros of much-needed revenue for member states in these difficult times," Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said.