Switzerland Meets With Irish Government Over Savings Tax Directive

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

18 February 2004

Switzerland and the European Union remain deadlocked over the EU's Savings Tax Directive, according to reports in the Swiss media this week.

Following a meeting with the Irish presidency of the EU, the Swiss Economics Ministry revealed that President Joseph Deiss had told the Irish government that Switzerland will only sign the Directive along with eight other treaties which are being negotiated.

Although the EU is understood to be sticking to its guns with regard to the linking of the Savings Tax Directive to the separate negotiations on, among other issues, security cooperation and tax fraud, Ireland's Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern announced that the presidency was prepared to "make efforts to achieve progress in the negotiations".

According to the Swissinfo news service, Mr Ahern is expected to discuss the possibility of a high level meeting between both camps with Romano Prodi, the head of the European Commission.

However, the Swiss President seemed pessimistic with regard to the possibility of breaking the deadlock this week, observing that: "Switzerland is not about to change its strategy."

A comprehensive report on the OECD, FATF and other 'offshore' initiatives, including the EU's Savings Tax Directive, is available in the Tax News Reports Shop at http://www.tax-news.com/reportshop/

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