Brussels, 14/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the Ecofin Council discussed its conclusions and the timetable set during the Feira Summit for the adoption of the "fiscal package" and gave its assent to the Directive text concerning the taxation of savings revenue. In a text that should be included in the conclusions of the Laeken Summit, the Council indicates that this draft Directive represents all of the provisions on savings taxation for the needs of negotiations with third countries. When the Member States have assessed the assurances foreseen in the Feira conclusions with regards to both equivalent measures in third countries as well as the same measures in the dependent or associated European territories, the Council ruling through unanimity, will decide, on the basis of a report presenting the results of these negotiations, a final text of the Directive at the latest on 31 December 2002. The Directive's text was released at the same time as the Council's conclusions.
After long talks, Luxembourg and Austria have thus obtain the assurance that the Directive on savings taxation will only be adopted definitively after they have received the assurance of successful negotiations with third countries, and the present text only constitutes a "basis for negotiation". According to the Council President and the Belgian Minister for Finance, Didier Reynders, the Council precisely followed the timetable set in the conclusions from Feira, by adopting an agenda in July, in October a mandate to begin the negotiations with third countries, and in December a draft text, which will act as a basis for negotiations. When the negotiations are concluded with third countries, the Directive will be adopted by unanimity, recalled Commissioner Frits Bolkestein when nevertheless underlining that Each Member State could eventually modify the text, but it will require unanimity to be approved. The Luxembourg Minister for the Budget Luc Frieden also underlined that the Directive's text will only act as a negotiator with third countries, and that its content could be reviewed in the light of the results of these negotiations. If Switzerland and the other third countries adopt equivalent measures to those implemented in the EU, there will be no problem, he remarked, when repeating that the equivalent measures adopted by Switzerland should cover information exchanges, otherwise we will not do it either. Didier Reynders assured for his part, before the press, that the Directive's text foresees that the 7 year derogation granted to Luxembourg, Austria and Belgium before entering into the information exchange system would begin on 1 January 2004 at the latest and that there would be an automatic transition to information exchange after 7 years.