This week’s plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg also included a debate on the progress of the negotiations on implementing the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT).

The Maltese Parliamentary Secretary Ian Borg described the development of the FTT from the point of view of the Maltese EU Presidency. The negotiations had been complex and time consuming. The Maltese Presidency would support further negotiations, even though Malta was not part of the ten Member States that wanted to be the first to introduce the tax.

Its establishment goes back to 2014, chaired by the long-term Italian EU Commissioner and former head of government Mario Monti: the so-called “High Level Group on Own Resources”. Its mission: to come up with ideas as to how financing the EU could become more transparent, simpler, fairer and more democratic.

The EU Single Market policy will continue to play an important role in the coming six months.

Progress is becoming apparent in the case of Barroso and Goldman Sachs. In the meantime, the struggle for more transparency in the European Parliament is going into the next round.

Due to its alleged abuse of the monopoly position of Standard & Poor’s (S&P), the European Commission is taking legal action against the rating agency.