Slovakia to join EU financial transaction tax initiative

LUXEMBOURG, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Slovakia will join a group of European Union countries that want to introduce a common tax on financial transactions, Vazil Hudak, the country's secretary of state told his EU counterparts during discussions in Luxembourg on Tuesday.

The commitment means that Germany and France now have reached the threshold of nine EU countries needed to press ahead with introducing the levy on their own.

The European Commission, the EU executive and the party responsible for initiating legislation, has said it is ready to move ahead with developing the proposal as soon as nine countries have formally applied to adopt it.

(Reporting By Jan Strupczewski)

((jan.strupczewski@thomsonreuters.com)(+32 2 287 68 37)(Reuters Messaging: jan.strupczewski.reuters.com@reuters.net))

Keywords: SLOVAKIA FTT/