Brussels, 21/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - Swiss federal finance advisor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf will be in Brussels on Friday 25 November for talks with EU Taxation Commissioner Algirdas Semeta about bilateral savings tax agreements (Rubik-type deals) already signed or being negotiated (EUROPE 10450, 10458 and 10481) between Switzerland and various EU member states, deals which have drawn the ire of the European Commission and the European Parliament.
After signing tax agreements with Germany and the United Kingdom in August 2011 whereby Switzerland is making a one-off payment for interest that account-holders of the UK and Germany had not paid to their countries of origin on money deposited in Swiss bank accounts (while keeping the names of the account holders anonymous), other member states are now in talks with the Swiss to sign similar deals (Greece, France and Italy).
On 25 October, Commissioner Semeta told MEPs that such deals must not trample underfoot the powers of the European Commission by encroaching on areas where the Commission holds exclusive rights. The commissioner is awaiting an expert report on the Swiss deals already in operation before making any formal statements about them or asking Germany or the UK to renegotiate.
The Commission is unhappy about bilateral tax deals because they make it more difficult to pursue negotiations within the EU over the new savings tax directive (to extend the scope of the directive and introduce automatic sharing of information about bank account holders among tax authorities). The Commission wants the savings tax talks to be concluded this year, but this seems highly unlikely because of opposition from Luxembourg and Austria, which refuse to get rid of anonymous bank accounts until the Swiss and other tax havens with which the EU has signed agreements do the same.
Greece is hoping to recover around a quarter of the cash deposited by Greek passport-holders in Swiss banks (estimated at lying somewhere between €10 billion and €150 billion) and is negotiating a deal with Switzerland along the lines of the British and German agreements. The Commission has decided to help Greece in the negotiations, with Commission experts working on how the country can make proper use of EU Structural Fund cash. It says similar aid is available to any member state negotiating this type of deal and it should prevent the Greek deal from clashing with EU savings tax rules and aims. (FG/transl.fl)