Brussels, 07/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - By lumping Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Austria and Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou altogether for their practices on fiscal transparency, Peer Steinbrüick incurred the wrath of Luxembourg Prime Minister and Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, already furious over the attitude of his European partners in the G20 and the repeated attacks on Luxembourg banking secrecy. In an interview with Luxembourg daily Wort of 7 May, Juncker responds to the comments of German Finance Minister Steinbrück, who said on the sidelines of the Ecofin Council in Brussels on Tuesday 5 May that he intended to invite all these countries to the next OECD conference on tax havens, to be held in Berlin. The ironic tone of the comparison displeased Luxembourg, whose parliament even voted a resolution condemning the comments and denouncing such arrogance. Steinbrück's attitude “demonstrates an unacceptable way to treat smaller neighbours,” Juncker says, criticising, too, the condescending attitude towards African countries. German-Luxembourg relations “have suffered greatly from the attacks of the German finance minister”, who, while qualified to look after his own country's finances, “would not be the ideal choice for a more sensitive post with in the German government”. Basically, “I am not asking Germany to give its blessing to Luxembourg fiscal policy. But I would point out that we agree that OECD standards have to be met and that there should be information exchange on request. There is no legitimate reason to describe Luxembourg as a tax haven,” argued Juncker, expressing his surprise after European countries were put on the OECD's black, grey or white lists (qualifying countries according to how well they cooperate on tax information exchange) at the G20. This was a decision that ran counter to the unanimous will of the March Summit and leaves the Luxembourg prime minister perplexed. “At the next European Summit at the end of June, I am going to ask whether unanimous decision taken in Council no longer apply to all member states when they sit at other tables”. The same applied to “consistency” in the very way the EU operates. (A.B./transl.rt)