At the initiative of Japan (Chairman of the Leading Group), Belgium (chair of the European Union), Spain and France, the countries committed to a tax on financial transactions Development met on 1st September in Paris. They studied the follow-up to the expert report Globalizing Solidarity: The Case for Financial Levies, which concludes on the technical, legal and economic feasibility for a tax on international financial transactions for development.

Ministers recalled the historic importance of achieving fund some basic needs such as access to water, food security, education, health. The Ministers urged the international community to establish such a mechanism.

Under the auspices of the Leading Group (60 countries), a Declaration calling for a tax on international financial transactions to finance development will be submitted to the Heads of State and Governments invited to attend the event on Innovative Financing to be held next September 21 in New York on the sidelines of the UN Summit on Millennium Development Goals.