To Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel c/o Minister of Finance Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble c/o Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel

Dear Chancellor Merkel,

We, the undersigned organisations from [XX] European countries are very grateful for your commitment to the financial transaction tax (FTT) in the framework of Enhanced Coopera- tion.

Like you, we are of the opinion that only a broad based tax as specified in the coalition agreement and spelt out in the draft of the European Commission will be sufficiently compre- hensive.

However, we are concerned that under the pressure of the finance industry some govern- ments will try to water down the proposal of the Commission. Particularly problematic would be to exempt derivatives from taxation or to tax only some of them. Derivatives represent the biggest share of transactions on the financial markets. Hence, exemptions would lead imme- diately to a substantial reduction of tax revenues. Furthermore, many derivatives are the source of dangerous stability risks and would be misused as instruments for the avoidance of the taxation of shares and bonds.

We therefore ask you not to give in to the pressure of the finance industry and to tax deriva- tives as put forward in the draft proposal of the Commission. The primacy of politics over financial markets must be restored.

In addition we would like to ask you to send a political signal with regard to the use of the tax revenues. We know that the German budget law does not allow the assignment of tax reve- nues for a specific purpose. However, you yourself have already stated that you could envis- age the revenues being used partly to combat youth unemployment in Europe. We strongly support this, but would ask you to also use a part of the revenues to combat poverty in de- veloping countries and to finance international environmental commitments.

France is already spending a part of the revenues from its unilateral transaction tax on de- velopment. We ask you to send a political sign by allocating a proportion of FTT revenue to development alongside president Hollande.

Yours sincerely

[undersigned organisations]