Madam President, Mr President-in-Office of the Council, Commissioner, during the Asian crisis in 1997, as with those which hit Mexico in 1995 or the EMS in 1993, everyone could see the damage caused to the economies of entire countries by financial speculation, particularly currency speculation. Between EUR 1 500 and 2 000 billion are traded every day on the financial markets. In three or four days, this can equal the total figure of annual global production, or global GDP, of approximately EUR 6 000 billion. The bulk of these financial transactions are purely speculative and do not involve any trade in goods or investments. Yet the erratic movement of these massive sums of capital can, in a few hours, cause the colla of a currency or the economy of a country, plunging its whole population into recession. In view of this situation, renewed interest has been expressed in the proposal by James Tobin, winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, to create a tax on currency transactions. The rate of this would be very low so that it did not affect trade in goods or investments, but it would act as a light brake on the wheels of speculation, thereby checking the multiplication of short-term transactions. Note that this proposed tax, which seems to be producing strong emotions in some people, would be the lowest tax in the world and the lowest in the history of global taxation. Yet it would represent the recapture of the areas seized from democracy by the financial sphere. One reason for the acceptance of this proposal, and of the campaigns by NGOs such as ATTAC, SOLIDAR or others which have popularised this proposal, is that it would release resources which could be allocated to development programmes in the poorest countries, in areas such as education or health. It could act as a kind of asset redistribution in a world where there is both increasing wealth and increasing poverty. Many personalities and institutions have come out in favour of this tax such as the Brazilian President, Fernando Cardoso, the Finnish Government, the Canadian Parliament last March and also Lionel Jospin in 1995. This question has been debated in several national parliaments of the EU. The common response has been that this tax could not be applied solely at national level and that the right platform for tackling this is the European Union. This is the reason for the oral question to the Council and Commission which we have tabled with 37 other Members. I am delighted with the compromise motion for a resolution which we have reached with the /EFA, and Groups. This motion asks the Commission to present a report to Parliament within six months on the feasibility of this tax. It also asks for an examination of the pressures and financial sanctions which could be applied against countries which encourage tax evasion or which maintain tax havens. One of the most common objections is that such a tax would be too complex, but this could be said of any tax. If this argument had been accepted in the past, then no taxes would ever have been created. The motion also asks that a position document, drawn up by the Commission and Council, should be submitted before the next annual meeting of the IMF. The European Union must take the initiative and must also, as demanded in the motion, propose this initiative to the G7 because it is primarily a political question. If the Union takes the initiative, this will have a ratchet effect because this debate is occurring all over the world, including in the USA and Japan. A desire is being expressed everywhere with increasing force that the world should not be ruled by traders but by the people, their parliaments, their governments and their democratic institutions. Europe must play a role in this new international regulation and I am extremely happy that today, with this debate and this motion, this question is now on the agenda of European construction.

Political group: PSE