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One step forward, one step aside, one step back

The negotiation on the lifting of banking secrecy is a three-step waltz.

Le premier is the exclamation. “1000 billion euros lost per year! Barroso exclaims.

Le second that of the charge "we must recover it" intone the Heads of State. “Impunity is over” thunders François Hollande at the end of the European summit: “ Those who thought they were escaping taxes by taking refuge in tax havens must understand that opacity is over ».

Then comes the troisième time, that of the tempo on the piano mode. It is the Prime Minister of Luxembourg who generally plays the game, in duet with his Austrian counterpart. " Yes. We are going to abandon banking secrecy and move towards the automatic exchange of information, which we want to introduce on January 1, 2015” thus swore in Brussels, last Wednesday, the inoxidable Jean-Claude Juncker. " More “it will happen” on condition of having negotiations with third countries, including Switzerland in particular”. Roused at the heights, Juncker knows well that time passes, firmness can be blunted. Behind the great impulses are already hiding small compromises.

The summit of the "27" which lasted 4 hours, all wet, including energy and Syria, was more like a "snack" than a working meeting. And its conclusions aren't as fierce as the ebullient post-meeting statements. Some appointments are well taken. But nothing or little on the consolidated corporate tax base. And no single list of tax havens. Most commitments are mostly goodwill. "It's a shot in the dark. The Heads of State and Government have mainly done communication'” notes Philippe Lamberts, MEP and banking specialist with the Greens.

Those who remember will remember the cry of victory in 2003, when the savings directive was adopted… after 14 years of negotiation. Luxembourg and Austria, already!, like Belgium then, had obtained to switch to the automatic exchange of information only " if and when the Council has "unanimously" concluded an agreement with Switzerland and others. Condition that is not yet effective.

The " I've got you, you hold me by the goatee » continues.

(NGV)

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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