The Record Europe: Watson & Farage clash over Commission’s plans for an EU FTT - La Treizième Étoile: A blog on EU politics
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The Record Europe: Watson & Farage clash over Commission’s plans for an EU FTT

Sunday, 3 July 2011
In this week’s edition of the BBC’s The Record Europe, UK MEPs Sir Graham Watson and Nigel Farage clashed over the European Commission’s proposal to introduce a tax on financial transactions (FTT) to raise money to finance the EU budget.

Once previously ruled out by the European Commission, South West MEP Sir Graham noted “there many of us were sceptical of the idea [of an FTT] when it was first launched but the more we look at it have begun to think this might not be a bad way of doing things”. Alluding to the five to eight months of “horse-trading” that goes on every five years between countries over who pays what to the budget, he said “if we are able to identify a tax that raises about the amount of money you need to run the thing, then why not go for it?”.

But UKIP leader Nigel Farage was quick to retort such suggestions, reminding that this is “the first occasion the EU is moving towards direct taxation” and that “they [Commission] want to raise money which is the basic function of the state”, before whipping out the nationalist card saying “there are many here in this place that hate Britain, hate the Anglo-Saxon culture, and those who openly say they want to attack the Anglo-Saxon culture and would love to see London hurt”.

The German MEP and co-head of the Green group Rebecca Harms was also part of the roundtable debate which can be seen in the video from 02:35 by clicking here or on the image above (viewable from Europe).

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