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European Union finance ministers fought openly over how to design a financial-transaction tax that may start in 2016 for 11 participating nations.

Germany and Austria led calls to press forward with a tax on equities and some derivatives in the nations that have signed up. Yet one of the 11, Slovenia, backed out of a pledge to agree on viable solutions by year-end.

The U.K., Sweden and the Netherlands, all outside the tax alliance, pilloried the effort as too vague, secretive and potentially damaging to the economy. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said Britain wouldnt hesitate to challenge the final tax plan in court, and Finance Minister Anders Borg indicated Sweden might join in.

These obstacles didnt deter the taxs supporters, who have dangled the prospect of a financial-sector tax before crisis-weary voters. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said today that governments would be foolish to set aside their ambitions or settle for a levy on stock trading only.

In the end its not acceptable that we shouldnt be able at all to get this thing underway, Schaeuble told reporters after the meeting. He predicted a successful first step would intensify the pressure on other countries not to reject permanently a reasonable taxation of financial transactions.

Work on a transaction tax for the 11 willing countries began more than a year ago, after a European Union-wide proposal failed. So far, participants have remained committed to the cause without agreeing on how it could work.

Nations pushing for the levy have been split over which trades to tax and on who should collect revenues, a trading firms country of origin or the nation where trading takes place. Smaller countries have generally sought a broader tax that raises more money, while bigger nations have been willing to start on a smaller scale.

Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Greece, Estonia, Slovakia and Slovenia are part of the enhanced cooperation tax effort. Today, Finance Minister Uros Cufer said Slovenia is considering whether to drop out.

The economic logic of the tax isnt valid for Slovenia, he said, according to Slovenian news agency STA. The Balkan nation hasnt yet started the formal procedures required to abandon the tax initiative.

At least nine nations will need to stay in the group and reach unanimous agreement for a common tax to proceed. Spanish Finance Minister Luis de Guindos called for a sensible, prudent and cautious tax that could draw widespread support.

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EU Ministers Eye 11-Nation Transaction Tax to Start 2016