[P2P-F] Understanding European Governance ? - in context of Tobin Tax

Wed Jun 29 17:12:37 CEST 2011

Below, a report showing the interest from the European Parliament in
relation to Financial Transaction Taxation.

//
*
*
*further notes, on how difficult in might be to actually adopt such
financial transaction tax through elected representative political
procedures :*

The Parliament seems, in my current understanding, to have only a limited
influence :
*a diluted power to approve or reject directives made by the European
Commission.*

[image: image.png]

( link to image - wikipedia
)<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:European_Union_legislative_triangle.svg>

Based on the report below, it feels like the EU Parliament does not have the
power to choose the laws it wants to vote on, and which have precedent on
all other national and regional legislations.

It seems to me that the combined powers of the EU Parliament and of all the
other National and Regional Parliaments is less then that of the European
Commission and the European Council.

It seems - based on my current knowledge - that the EU Parliament, in
relation to proposals for directives, is merely relegated to a pressure
group with some kind of attention from media, towards a population which has
no powers to elect nor the European Commission, not the President of the
European Council , or more exactly the Councilium of the European
Union<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_the_European_Union>

The EU Parliament seems to have even less powers then the Council of the
European Union , as the Council seems to have the power to initiate EU law
itself :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_the_European_Union

*" In a few limited areas the Council may initiate new EU
law<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_European_Union> itself.
"*

Hence, overall, the framework for political "democratic"
accountability<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accountability>seems to be
very limited, despite the EU Commissioners needing to be
approved once every few years by the European Parliament, a European
Parliament which itself is, at the scale of the population of the EU who
voted, apparently not very legitimate, considering the low voting turnout.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament_election,_2009

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_the_European_Union#Voter_behaviour

*"In 2009, the overall turnout was just 43%"*

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
*
*
yes, I think you'e right about the directives taking precedence, I so need
to find out more about how it all works tho! Here is one of our press
releases anyway:

Financial transaction tax European Parliament keeps pressure on for European
FTT

The European Parliament today reiterated the call for the introduction of an
EU-level financial transaction tax, as part of a report on innovative
financing adopted by MEPs. The Greens have long called for the introduction
of a financial transaction tax and welcomed the vote, with Green MEP *Philippe
Lamberts* commenting:

*"The EP has kept the pressure on for the introduction of a financial
transaction tax at EU-level. While the ultimate goal should be to introduce
a global FTT, there are clear benefits for the EU to push ahead on its own.
MEPs have today urged the Commission to take steps to this end.*

**

*"The Greens have long championed the introduction of a financial
transaction tax both as a means of curbing harmful speculation and as a new
source for generating public revenue. As well as being a potentially
significant source of revenue at a time when national exchequers are under
strain, a financial transaction tax is socially just. A FTT would also
clearly address the systemic risk emanating from high-frequency trading,
acting as a disincentive for risky speculation. It is time for the
Commission and member states to stop stalling."*

The petition thing is the "European Citizens' Initiative" which
coincidentally enough was just launched today and there is even a conference
starting now on it!

The Greens have also created a website (http://www.eci-greens-efa.net/) that
will function as a sort of hothouse/message board to allow people all over
Europe to get together to launch one of these initiatives.

Livestream of conference now: http://www.greenmediabox.eu/live/eci/

Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2011 15:44:10 +0200
Subject: Re: article trends : 2 Belges sur 3 veulent taxer les transactions
financières
From: dante.monson at gmail.com
To: p2p-foundation at lists.ourproject.org; econowmix at googlegroups.com;
gtmonnaie at gtmonnaie.be

Unfortunately, the situation of the current Belgian "caretaker" Government
may not make it possible to bring forward and apply such Tobin Tax measures.

And even if it did
( although I would need some more expert opinion on this )
my current understanding is that

the European Commission drafts directives can block or over-rule national or
regional decisions.

To my current understanding, directives of the European Commission

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_law

only need to be approved by the European Council and the European Parliament
- not by national governments.

To my current understanding, it is not the european parliament which drafts
law proposals at a european level.

For the European Commission to "consider" to draft or change a directive,
there is the "option" to make a petition converging one million
signatures. ( under specific conditions - percentages from each country, etc
)

And even after such petition asking for writing or modifying a directive,
there is no obligation for the commission to follow suit on such request by
one million people.

///

European Union - Democratic ?

2011/6/29 Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>

strong social support for tobin tax in belgium:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: *Dante-Gabryell Monson* <dante.monson at gmail.com>
Date: 2011/6/29
Subject: article trends : 2 Belges sur 3 veulent taxer les transactions
financières
To: gtmonnaie at gtmonnaie.be, econowmix at googlegroups.com

2 Belges sur 3 veulent taxer les transactions financières
http://trends.rnews.be/fr/economie/actualite/banque-et-finance/2-belges-sur-3-veulent-taxer-les-transactions-financieres/article-1195046610002.htm

lundi 27 juin 2011 à 16h58

*67 % des Belges sont favorables à l'introduction d'une taxe sur les
transactions financières, selon un sondage Eurobaromètre publié par le
Parlement européen. C’est plus que la moyenne de l’UE*

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