"The European Parliament set the world standard today by pressing ahead on an EU-wide Robin Hood Tax. This is great news. The EU alone could raise tens of billions of euros to help millions of people pushed into poverty because of bankers' greed," said Elise Ford, head of Oxfam International's EU office.

The vote passed with 527 in favour to 129 opposed and 18 abstentions, The vote is non-binding but the strong call for legislation will be hard for the EU's executive Commission to ignore. The Commission will now produce a feasibility study and come forward with concrete legislative proposals.

Under the proposal, the EU would push for a global FTT, but would go it alone if need be. A tax would be levied on each financial transaction by banks based in the European Union at a rate of up to 0.05pc - raising as much as €200bn annually in Europe and as much as €650bn if implemented globally.

France and Germany have pushed for a global transaction tax at G20 summits in recent years but faced stiff opposition from the US and Canada.

"Unfortunately, our federal [Canadian] government has not similarly embraced the policy proposal. In fact, they played an obstructionist role in efforts to discuss the FTT at the G8 and G20 meetings in Canada," stated James Clancy, Canadian president of the 340,000 member National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE).