Brussels, 18/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - At the European summit on 20-21 March, the heads of state are expected to give Luxembourg and Austria reassurances to enable them to lift their long-standing veto over the revised EU savings tax directive. In the most recent draft of the conclusions document, dated 17 March, the EU28 asks the five European countries, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marin and Monaco, with which the European Commission is negotiating revised savings tax accords, to fully pledge to implement the OECD's new global standard for automatic exchange of bank information. The heads of state urge the Commission to ensure that the talks are concluded before the end of the year and, in December, the European Council will examine a progress report from the Commission. The conclusions document states that, in the absence of sufficient results, the report will examine measures that could be applied to non-EU countries that fail to comply with the new global standard. Luxembourg and Austria are worried about a number of different standards being applied, and the EU28 will ask the Commission to ensure that, when the EU directive on administrative cooperation is adopted at the end of the year, the EU's legislation is fully aligned with the new OECD standard. Luxembourg's prime minister, Xavier Bettel, seems to be happy with this. The directive on savings tax could then be adopted at the Agriculture Council next week, as provided for in the conclusions document for the December 2013 European Council. (EL)