Steinbrueck told reporters at the start of the latest Ecofin meeting in Brussels on Monday that there needs to be a new discussion on expanding the EU Savings Tax Directive to cover financial vehicles and territories not currently included in the legislation.

He also wants all member states to adopt guidelines drawn up by the OECD to effectively unify EU tax information exchange provisions.

"I'm expecting broad European support in the struggle against tax fraud, which weakens the whole community," Steinbrueck stated.

"I would like to see the OECD codex implemented and I would like to see broad support by European countries in the fight against tax evasion," he added.

"We have to support the Commission in its negotiations with tax havens like Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong. It cannot be that some European countries through their own agreements undermine the Commission negotiations," Steinbrueck argued.

The German finance minister also noted that some EU member states with traditions of banking secrecy, such as Luxembourg and Austria, have been "difficult to get certain information from", but he stopped short of labelling these states as 'tax havens'.

Luxembourg and Austria were among the handful of member states and third countries which were allowed to opt out of sharing information on bank accounts under the savings tax directive, and instead apply a temporary withholding tax on savings interest.

However, Steinbruek's comments suggest that pressure may be brought to bear on these states to sign up to information exchange; indeed, Belgium, another country which applies the withholding tax, is to review the system and, according to Finance Minister Didier Reynders, "will move directly to exchanging information".

In response to Germany's concerns on tax evasion, Luxembourg's Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker urged fellow EU governments not to make a "snap decision" on new anti-tax evasion measures, but he conceded that European financial hubs should not "enrich themselves at the cost of their neighbours".