When Europe’s politicians sit down to consider the European Commission’s proposals regarding an EU-wide financial transaction tax (FTT) (“Split over EU-wide financial tax”, 15-22 September), they would do well to bear in mind that maintaining a thriving financial-services industry and a network of global financial centres generates huge benefits for each of the 27 member states.

The EU is the world’s leading exporter of financial services, while the industry employs nearly 10 million people and accounts for 6% of the Union’s total economic output.

In addition to these direct benefits, it also has an important role to play in facilitating the broader economic growth that every European leader has identified as a priority.

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London’s status as one of the world’s leading financial centres – it is responsible for 17% of all global trading in equities while UK fund managers are in charge of portfolios worth 11% of the global total – is an asset not just for the UK, but for the EU as a whole.

By unilaterally pursuing policies such as this EU-wide FTT, European policymakers are pricing all of the EU’s financial centres out of the global marketplace.

What is the use of creating a level playing-field within the EU if we can no longer compete with other financial centres outside the Union?

If, as José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, has indicated, we really want to ensure the financial sector makes a “fair contribution”, the European Parliament must pay heed to the Commission’s own impact assessment.

This says that a European tax on financial transactions could lose more money than it would raise in revenues as 70%-90% of all derivatives trading would move outside the EU. Put simply, how can you tax something that is no longer here?

And if Barroso really wants to shore up our banking system, then any such proposals must – as the UK government has already made clear – proceed on a global basis and have their impact on growth carefully examined.

James Tobin never envisaged his tax as being anything other than a global measure, and nor should we.

Barroso’s comments that a transaction tax would be imposed in the eurozone if the UK uses its veto in the EU provided further cause for concern.

This is the latest in a line of proposals focusing on the eurozone to the exclusion of other EU member states, including a proposal by the European Central Bank requiring clearing houses to move into the eurozone – an idea that the UK has said it is ready to take to the European courts.

With one study suggesting that 62% of the revenues generated by an EU-wide transaction tax would come from the UK, it is clear that any such measure would represent much more of a tax on London than on the EU. However, its impact would be felt right across the Union.

Stuart Fraser

Policy chairman, City of London Corporation

London