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

Thu Jun 30 19:01:13 CEST 2011

Ironically ( to me at least),

the European Commission wants to fund itself more autonomously by perceiving
direct taxation on certain types of financial transactions ( only for
transactions within the EU ? )

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/29/ec-proposes-<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/29/ec-proposes-tobin-style-taxes>
tobin-style-taxes<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/29/ec-proposes-tobin-style-taxes>

consolidating itself as a more autonomous form of european government,

progressively consolidating "regalien" powers

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9galien

On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 5:49 PM, George Por <
george at community-intelligence.com> wrote:

>  Part of the picture is that the Commission gets its budget from the
> Parliament.
>
> It’s the Commissioners who have the ultimate power but the rarely look into
> details of how the real work of the Commission is done, which is happening
> at the level of Directorates that correspond to ministries in many of the
> Member States.
>
> g.
>
>
> 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.
> *
>
>
> ( 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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