Boundless arrogance

Just to remind you, formally the European Community is made up of 27 countries each equal under the Treaties.


Then you have reality.

A European financial transaction tax will be in place by the end of year, French minister for European affairs Jean Leonetti said on Wednesday, apparently speeding up the timetable."This is on the programme for the next European summit (on January 30). (French President) Nicolas Sarkozy and (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel have decided on this and it will be put in place before the end of 2012,"

Because the Merkozy says so, it is the case.
Interestingly only the UK and Sweden oppose this plan,

Leonetti said Germany and France were already in agreement on the tax and that Italy was not opposed to it. He said that of the 27 members of the European Union, only Britain and Sweden were opposed to the idea.

Interesting because of course this tax will hit the UK disproportionately, to provide the EU with what it laughably calls  it's 'own resources', and Sweden the only country to have self harmed in this fashion. This is what their Finance Minster Anders Borg said back in September,

When Sweden began taxing financial transactions in the 1980s, "between 90%-99% of traders in bonds, equities and derivatives moved out of Stockholm to London," Borg said.
"The impact was basically that we did not get any tax revenue. It brought in very little tax money while moving most of the businesses outside of Sweden

This is the chap who in November was named  the FT's European Finance Minister of the Year (not a competitive title this year I suspect)