UN under-secretary general promotes “solidarity levy” to help tackle migrant crisis

Budapest (MTI) – The United Nations’ under-secretary general asked all EU member states to introduce a “solidarity levy” on financial transactions to help tackle the migration crisis, at a visit to the Hungarian-Croatian border on Friday.

Philippe Douste-Blazy visited Beremend, the border station where thousands of migrants enter Hungary each day to go further to the west. He was accompanied by Giuseppina Maria Nicolini, the mayor of Italy’s Lampedusa.

Speaking to French news agency AFP, the under-secretary general said that the levy would be 0.1 percent per share transaction and 0.01 percent per derivative transaction.

A quarter of the revenue would be distributed among countries that take in asylum seekers. Fifty percent would be allocated to developing countries, enabling them to supply drinking water, food, sanitation, health care services and education, and the rest would go to national budgets, he said.

Eleven EU member states have already supported the idea, he said, asking all the 28 EU members to introduce the levy.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters