Switzerland Hopes To Restart Bilaterals II Talks

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

18 June 2002

The Swiss government was anxiously awaiting the European Union's verdict on restarting talks on the second set of bilateral agreements yesterday, according to a report from the Swissinfo news service.

'We have received encouraging signs from Brussels, but of course the decision is entirely up to EU ministers,' Jose Bessard from the Swiss Integration Office told Swissinfo on Monday, referring to a meeting of European Union foreign ministers this week to discuss the mandates for outstanding dossiers on forging closer links between the Alpine jurisdiction and the 15 nation bloc.

Although the initial talks on 'Bilaterals II' began earlier this year, the two sides have fallen out over a framework for the negotiations, and something of a stalemate situation has resulted.

As the deadline for agreement on the EU's Savings Tax Directive nears, the European Union has been exerting increasing pressure on non-member states to lift banking secrecy on the savings interest of non-residents, spurred by the vows of EU members such as Austria and Luxembourg to remain rigid until other banking centres, such as Switzerland relax their financial privacy laws.

As a result, the European Union is keen to negotiate the cross-border crime dossier (which addresses the banking secrecy issue) first, leaving the other nine negotiating mandates on hold. However, the Swiss want all ten dossiers negotiated as one package, and have stated their intention to stand firm on banking secrecy.

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