Around one trillion euro is lost in EU member states to tax evasion and tax avoidance every year, according to the EU Council.
"One trillion euro is about the same as the entire GDP or total income of Spain, the fifth biggest economy of the European Union. It is about the same as the Union’s budget for the full seven years ahead. And it is one hundred times more than the loan that was recently agreed for Cyprus," said President of the EU Council, Herman Van Rompuy.
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Van Rompuy said that the fight against tax complacency will be discussed at the next European Council on 22 May.
The declaration follows on from the EU G5, and later on Luxembourg’s, agreement to participate in the automatic exchange of tax information with other EU countries by 2015.
As European member states are taking actions to reduce tax dodging and to put an end to banking secrecy, Commissioner emeta told EU finance ministers at the ECOFIN summit this weekend that those measures "echo what the Commission has long been calling for. And as a result, the tools are already on the table, waiting to be seized."
"Tax evasion is to a large extent a cross-border problem that reveals our inter-dependence and therefore needs cross-border solutions. Not only in Europe but also globally," added Von Rompuy.
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By GlobalDataHowever, the Swiss Bankers Association reacted to the latest moves from EU countries by publishing a statement on their website last week.
"The automatic exchange of information with the EU is not an option for the banks in Switzerland because Switzerland is a third country and only equivalent measures can therefore be requested of Switzerland," the SBA said.
"Apart from this, there is currently no mandate for negotiations on the part of the EU. In the context of this equivalence, the banks in Switzerland are prepared to discuss a broadening of the agreement on the taxation of savings income with the EU," it said.
Austria remains the only EU state to stand by its banking secrecy rules. Austrian Finance Minister, Maria Fekter, said on Friday during the Ecofin meeting in Dublin that automatic tax information exchange is not necessary in Austria due to its withholding tax system and told the media "it represents a massive intrusion of privacy."
