BRUSSELS, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A tax on banks to raise 50 billion euros could fund the new European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to protect countries in financial trouble, according to an internal report from the EU’s executive for euro zone countries.

In the European Commission’s internal report seen by Reuters on Wednesday, officials recommend different ways of paying for a new stability mechanism to replace the current European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) in 2013.

Flagging the need for a “critical mass of paid-in capital”, officials suggest that the financial sector be called on to fund this stockpile, because the sector benefits from the fund’s existence.

“It is in the interest of the financial sector to contribute to the existence of an ultimate safety net, which protects capacity of public authorities to rescue them,” officials write in the report.

“A one-off tax of 0.2 percent on euro area bank assets would allow +/- 50 billion euros to be raised,” they say in the document, which was presented to euro zone deputy finance ministers at a preparatory meeting on Monday, ahead of the Eurogroup gathering of finance ministers next Monday.