EU FTT: UK’s challenge blocked for now but UK Treasury indicates they will not let it be.
In april 2013, the UK launched a legal challenge against the introduction of an EU Financial Transaction Tax (‘EU FTT’) under the Enhanced Cooperation Procedure (‘ECP’).
Two days before, the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) released its decision on the UK’s challenge. The judgement rejected the challenge as premature, on the basis that any challenge would need to be made against a final, adopted Directive for the EU FTT. On one hand, the UK government has therefore failed in its attempt to prevent the introduction of an EU FTT. However, the decision of 4 May, certainly falls short of positive confirmation of the legality of the EU FTT. The decision leaves open the possibility of future challenges to the legality of the regime by the UK (or indeed other non-participating Member States), a fact that has not gone unnoticed by the UK treasury.
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