Switzerland to share seat with Poland, pledges additional $10 billion to IMF
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss President Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf and US Attorney General Eric Holder met on the fringes of a key International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting in Washington 20-21 April. Bern’s statement was brief, noting that the two met “in order to discuss bilateral cooperation on tax issues. They agreed to pursue all available options to identify US taxpayers with undeclared accounts in Switzerland.” The US Department of Justice, which Holder heads, did not comment on the meeting.
The IMF received pledges of $430 billion in additional funds for what it calls a “reinforced anti-crisis firewall” from its member states, in an IMFC (Financial Committee) meeting of central bank governors and ministers 20-22 April. Switzerland pledged $10, noting that the “exceptional” boost is “due to the still fragile state of the world economy, [thus] the IMF ministerial committee decided to increase the IMF resources” and insisting that “the additional funds should be made available to the IMF only on a temporary basis.”
Poland and Switzerland to share part of Bretton Woods leadership
Poland and Switzerland, in a new Memorandum of Understanding signed during the Washington meetings, have agreed to Switzerland maintaining “overall leadership of the constituency in both the IMF and World Bank.” The constituency to which they refer is a group of eight IMF member countries that Switzerland has represented since 1992 on the 24-seat councils of the IMF and the World Bank, sister organizations in what are known as the Bretton Woods Institutions. “It will represent the constituency in the responsible ministerial bodies, for example, the IMFC and Development Committee, in which the political and strategic courses are set. However, Switzerland will share its seat on the IMF Executive Board–the IMF’s operating decision-making body–and in future both countries will nominate the executive director for a two-year period on an equal rotation basis.”
The clause concerning the executive director is dependent on the IMF implementing its governance reforms but Bern notes that no leadership changes will be made for the World Bank, where governance reform is not underway.
Geneva, Switzerland and Washington, DC (GenevaLunch) - US Attorney General Eric Holder is being urged to review the case of Bradley Birkenfeld, the former UBS banker whose testimony was instrumental in the US government’s case of tax fraud against the Swiss bank. Birkenfeld was sentenced in August 2009 to 40 months in prison for his role in aiding his clients to avoid paying taxes in the USA.
John Durham has been appointed the US special prosecutor to investigate allegations that CIA officials broke the law in going beyond authorized techniques to interrogate terrorist suspects abroad. Durham is a career prosecutor with the Department of Justice who is already investigating the illegal destruction of CIA videotapes of interrogations of terror suspects. Eric Holder, US attorney general, in announcing Durham’s appointment, said that his decision is “controversial” because the Obama Aministration had previously declined to probe past “war on terror” offenses by the intelligence community, preferring to “look forward and not backward.” But he says that given the preliminary information at hand, “this review is the only responsible course of action for me to take.” Reuters
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s Justice and Police Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf will meet US Department of Justice chief Eric Holder, at his invitation, Monday 2 March in Washington, DC.
Top of the agenda, according to Bern, is collaborative efforts between the two countries in the areas of combatting the financing of terrorism and organized crime. Also on the agenda: Guantanamo and the US Visa Waiver Program. UBS and the US court case against it have been added to the programme.
Update, 20:25 Tom Daschle withdraws, saying the health job is too big for someone who is a distraction. US President Obama said Tuesday he regrets but accepts Daschle’s withdrawal as the nominee to lead the health department. Tom Daschle has come under fire over his income tax record. Other US appointments, NPR The US Senate 2 February voted for Eric Holder as attorney general, making him the first African-American to hold the key post, and giving him responsibility to decide which prisoners will leave Guantanamo Bay, when and to go where.
