A proposed new EU tax on financial transactions is now unlikely to come into effect by its 2016 deadline.
Finance ministers from the 11 countries, including Portugal, which had been keen to introduce the tax were to agree the basics of the tax this week, but were unable because the talks broke down in disagreement.
With the end of year deadline having been forfeited now, the goal of introduction by January 2016 is no longer realistic. Agreeing the basic points of the tax by the end of this year had been viewed as necessary.
The tax could be applied to a range of financial transactions, such as stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, futures and the like. It could affect individual investors along with banks and other financial institutions.
European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has made the introduction of the financial transactions tax a priority for the new commission.
But experience to-date is reported to have been less than successful.
Italy introduced its own form of the tax in 2013, but that caused a 30% reduction in the volume of equity trading which in turn meant that the tax was well below what had been expected.
France had a similar tax, but revenue raised was just one-third of what was forecast.
The UK is adamantly opposed to the tax and has challenged the idea in the European courts. It fears that the City of London would be harmed by its introduction.
Planning to introduce the new tax are Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Slovakia and Slovenia.
