French President Nicolas Sarkozy is to introduce a controversial tax on financial transactions this year -prompting criticism from Berlin that Paris was moving too fast. The United States and Britain are fiercely opposed to taxing transfers of shares and securities and have warned continental nations that investors would move off shore to evade the tax. "France will not wait until the others are agreed," Sarkozy saidFriday, after a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, suggesting France is willing to introduce the tax unilaterally. Finance Minister Francois Baroin said he would meet next week with German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble to discuss the way forward on the tax. Sarkozy's spokesman, Henri Guaino, said the president would press ahead alone if other European Union nations did not adopt the tax, making a decision on it by the end of this month. In Berlin, government spokesman Steffen Seibert said German policy remained to introduce the tax in all 27 EU nations at the same time. "That is our objective," Seibert told reporters, adding that agreement needed to be achieved. Sarkozy is scheduled to visit Berlin on Monday for talks with Merkel. The European Commission unveiled proposals for such a tax in October 2010, despite misgivings from Britain and Sweden. Sarkozy and Merkel have jointly urged introduction of the tax. Advocates say it would claw back from investors and the finance industry some of the enormous costs to state treasuries of propping up security markets during the sovereign debt crisis.
