Commenting on the proposed financial transaction tax, David Blair, regulation partner at UK law firm Osborne Clarke, said:
"Given the lack of transparency surrounding EU budgets, it seems questionable whether the EU Commission is an appropriate body to be redistributing wealth to European tax payers. In the event that such taxes were in fact devoted to, say, bolstering EU institutional expansion or the preservation of the Euro, taxpayers may feel that the EU Commission's homage to Robin Hood lacks romantic substance. Businesses and their employees will doubtless find it ironic that an institution that poses such a considerable indirect burden on taxpayers should find the moral authority to impose an additional levy on wealth creation in the name of taxpayer protection."
