Banking secrecy issue not ‘one-way street,’ says Austria
From Global Post
Austria will not negotiate loosening its controversial banking secrecy policies until others do so too, notably tax havens under Britain’s influence, top government officials said Tuesday in Vienna.
“We do not wish to start discussions if others are not ready to discuss their issues,” foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Schallenberg told AFP. “It cannot be a one-way street.”
Austria has come under intense scrutiny as the last country to defend total banking secrecy after Luxembourg announced that it was prepared to lift its own.
Notoriously vocal Finance Minister Maria Fekter has repeatedly said Austria will not introduce the automatic exchange of banking data, describing it last week as “a massive intrusion of privacy,” on the sidelines of EU talks in Dublin.
Instead, she sought to point the finger at “the real tax havens in the EU” and cited the Channel Islands, Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands and Virgin Islands as “the real hot spots for money laundering and tax evasion.”
Foreign Minister and conservative leader Michael Spindelegger agreed Tuesday that Austria should not “sacrifice” its banking secrecy if Britain did not make a similar move.
Social Democrat Chancellor Werner Faymann, who last week said Austria would discuss lifting its banking secrecy, also called for a debate on data exchange in tax havens and trusts within the sphere of influence of EU states.
Austria has repeatedly fended off accusations of being a tax haven in recent weeks, insisting it was keen to fight tax evasion.
Any exchange of information should affect only foreign account-holders however, and not Austrian depositors, ministers said.
During a visit to Vienna Monday, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn also called for the European Union to take on “real tax havens” in the British Channel islands.
“I hope that, in the fight against the real tax havens, we will act as firmly as we did for the small European Union countries,” he told a press conference with Spindelegger.
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