By Michele Sinner
LUXEMBOURG, March 8 (Reuters) - Luxembourg, Austria and Switzerland vowed on Sunday to protect their banking secrecy and speak with one voice to influence how the G20 group of nations crack down on tax havens.
The G20 holds a summit in April and tackling tax havens is on its agenda but the three small countries with their long-cherished bank secrecy rules are not members of the group.
'The discussions that are taking place right now, unfortunately take place in organizations where our countries are not members, in particular the G20,' Luxembourg's Treasury and Budget Minister, Luc Frieden, told a joint news conference with his Swiss and Austrian counterparts.
'We think it is unacceptable that among our European and American friends, we have not had the possibility to have a debate together,' Frieden said.
The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development which represents richer countries, has a blacklist of countries that won't fully cooperate in tax evasion probes and includes Andorra, Monaco and Liechtenstein in Europe.
EU finance ministers have also asked the European Commission to look at ways of dealing with 'uncooperative' tax jurisdictions and how they could be censured.
'We demand to be part of the discussions where the criteria for the list of so-called uncooperative countries will be fixed,' Frieden said.
Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg want to be 'integrated' into the debate on tax havens 'to find ways to maintain banking secrecy while at the same time we are open to a dialogue on how to find ways to improve collaboration on tax offenses,' he said.
Germany and France have pushed for Switzerland to be added to the blacklist but Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg, backed Switzerland's bank secrecy rules on Sunday.
Austria's Finance Minister, Josef Proell, said banking secrecy was not the source of the financial crisis.
'We will also be mindful of some EU member states pushing against the boundaries, or even beyond, some of the fundamental principles of the EU freedom of establishment and the free movement of capital,' Proell said.
Switzerland came under fire after allowing Swiss bank UBS to disclose the identity of about 300 of its U.S. clients to avert criminal charges that Swiss regulators said would put its existence at risk and hurt the economy.
Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz, who is also finance minister, said the creation of 'blacklists' must be avoided when those such as Switzerland are not party to the talks.
'It is the aim of the Swiss government to avoid the automatic exchange of information because that would mean giving up banking secrecy,' Merz told the news conference.
Separately EU Tax Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs has proposed that no EU country can use local bank secrecy laws to turn down a request for information exchange from other member states.
'We should not discuss the savings tax directive and the directive on information exchange separately but in a package... there can not be rash political decisions above our heads with great repercussions on the parties concerned,' Proell said.
(Writing by Huw Jones, editing by Derek Caney) Keywords: LUXEMBOURG SWITZERLAND/ (Reuters messaging: huw.jones.reuters.com@reuters.net; + 32 2 287 6817; huw.jones@thomsonreuters.com) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
LUXEMBOURG, March 8 (Reuters) - Luxembourg, Austria and Switzerland vowed on Sunday to protect their banking secrecy and speak with one voice to influence how the G20 group of nations crack down on tax havens.
The G20 holds a summit in April and tackling tax havens is on its agenda but the three small countries with their long-cherished bank secrecy rules are not members of the group.
'The discussions that are taking place right now, unfortunately take place in organizations where our countries are not members, in particular the G20,' Luxembourg's Treasury and Budget Minister, Luc Frieden, told a joint news conference with his Swiss and Austrian counterparts.
'We think it is unacceptable that among our European and American friends, we have not had the possibility to have a debate together,' Frieden said.
The Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development which represents richer countries, has a blacklist of countries that won't fully cooperate in tax evasion probes and includes Andorra, Monaco and Liechtenstein in Europe.
EU finance ministers have also asked the European Commission to look at ways of dealing with 'uncooperative' tax jurisdictions and how they could be censured.
'We demand to be part of the discussions where the criteria for the list of so-called uncooperative countries will be fixed,' Frieden said.
Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg want to be 'integrated' into the debate on tax havens 'to find ways to maintain banking secrecy while at the same time we are open to a dialogue on how to find ways to improve collaboration on tax offenses,' he said.
Germany and France have pushed for Switzerland to be added to the blacklist but Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg, backed Switzerland's bank secrecy rules on Sunday.
Austria's Finance Minister, Josef Proell, said banking secrecy was not the source of the financial crisis.
'We will also be mindful of some EU member states pushing against the boundaries, or even beyond, some of the fundamental principles of the EU freedom of establishment and the free movement of capital,' Proell said.
Switzerland came under fire after allowing Swiss bank UBS to disclose the identity of about 300 of its U.S. clients to avert criminal charges that Swiss regulators said would put its existence at risk and hurt the economy.
Swiss President Hans-Rudolf Merz, who is also finance minister, said the creation of 'blacklists' must be avoided when those such as Switzerland are not party to the talks.
'It is the aim of the Swiss government to avoid the automatic exchange of information because that would mean giving up banking secrecy,' Merz told the news conference.
Separately EU Tax Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs has proposed that no EU country can use local bank secrecy laws to turn down a request for information exchange from other member states.
'We should not discuss the savings tax directive and the directive on information exchange separately but in a package... there can not be rash political decisions above our heads with great repercussions on the parties concerned,' Proell said.
(Writing by Huw Jones, editing by Derek Caney) Keywords: LUXEMBOURG SWITZERLAND/ (Reuters messaging: huw.jones.reuters.com@reuters.net; + 32 2 287 6817; huw.jones@thomsonreuters.com) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.