BERN, SWITZERLAND – Data privacy concern is increasingly raising its head in US-Swiss talks over taxes, visas and banking. The latest incident is linked to Switzerland’s decision to continue participating in the US visa waiver programme.
Parliament will have its say in US data demands for visa waiver programme
The Swiss Federal Council Wednesday 1 February made it clear it intends to move ahead with negotiations with the US in order to remain in the US visa waiver programme. Switzerland has been part of the programme since 1986 but in October 2009 the US announced that partners in the programme would have to observe two new rules, says Bern. They were told that “partner countries will be required to increase police cooperation. This will entail the conclusion of agreements about the automatic exchange of DNA and fingerprint data to prevent and to combat serious crime (PCSC) and the exchange of data about known and suspected terrorists.”
Swiss media and politicians have been speculating in recent weeks that the US has been pressuring the Swiss government to agree to the new rules and that, given Switzerland’s penchant for privacy and data protection, the Swiss government would refuse. Some 340,000 Swiss travel to the US every year and the visa waiver programme means they can visit as a tourist for up to three months without first obtaining a visa.
But Bern now says it plans to go ahead with the negotiations, noting, however, its own ground rules. The US “requires that two agreements in the security area should be finalized. The Federal Council has instructed the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP) to formulate a negotiation mandate in this area. Parliament and the Cantons will be consulted before the final granting of the mandate. Data protection aspects will be duly taken into account in the negotiation of the agreements.”
Double taxation treaty talks bring up data release questions
Bern gives green light to send thousands of e-mails, but they remain encrypted
The sensitive issue comes up just as the lower house of parliament’s tax commission announced, 31 January, that Swiss President and Finance Minister, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf had brought it up to date on US-Swiss double taxation treaty negotiations. Details were not provided except to say that the discussion covered interpretations of “judicial assistance”, a sticking point in the negotiations, and “recent demands by the US”, without elaborating on these.
Swiss-German public radio DSR reported, however, that some 4 to 6 million e-mails, mainly correspondence about banks’ commercial affairs, were being offered to the US by at least some of the 11 banks currently under investigation by the US Department of Justice—but that the correspondance is encrypted and will not be decrypted until the two countries reach an agreement. The e-mails contain the names of client advisers. The banks are suspected by the US government of helping US citizens evade taxes.
Encryption until “global solution” found
Spokesperson Roland Meier of the Federal Finance Department then confirmed to journalists the information published by DSR. He noted that until a “global solution” is found with American judicial authorities, names that are encrypted may not be released unless a legal request is made to Swiss authorities, repeating what Widmer-Schlumpf said on television, “We will only decode when we have found a solution with the United States on all the banks that are under discussion.”
A legal request would need to respect the existing Swiss-US treaty and specifically state that the actions of the person whose information is being requested is punishable under both Swiss and US law. Details, TSR, French
Analysis, in French: Martin Naville, president of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce, analyzed the situation in a video interview with RSR radio, “Les choses ont changé” (6 minutes, free but registration required)
Switzerland’s vocal Americans joined by even louder Canadians
Americans in Switzerland, meanwhile, are expressing growing concern about their ability to maintain bank accounts for their daily living expenses, mortgages and pensions, with Swiss banks growing more wary of them as clients given US demands for information. A particular sticking point is the Fatca (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) law that starting in 2014 will penalize financial institutions around the world that don’t comply by revealing the accounts of US persons to the IRS and collect tax withholdings for the IRS from them.
Switzerland’s Americans were some of the first US citizens abroad to become aware of the problem, because of Swiss data protection issues and US efforts to obtain information from Swiss banks. But Americans living in Canadai are becoming increasingly vocal in their resistance to US efforts to obtain data. The larger US expat community in Canada recently formed the Isaac Brock Society, named after Sir Isaac Brock, who prepared Canadians for war with the United States and gave his life in repelling a US invasion in 1812, according to their site.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Parents sharing custody of children no matter what their marital state moved a step closer to becoming Swiss law last week when the legal commission of the lower house voted with no opposition in favour of an upper house commission motion to change the law. Custody today is assigned to one or the other or in some cases both parents, in case of divorce.
The Federal Council gave the proposal its backing in November, but it needs the vote of parliament to become law. The lower house commission will now hear arguments about details to the recommended law, before the lower house votes.
It is as yet unclear when the modifications might become law, as they wend their way through the Swiss legislative system.
Changes to the law covering child support are expected to follow, but in a second phase.
Background story, GenevaLunch, 17 November 2011
Swiss parliament must approve the new US-Swiss double taxation treaty
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The new double taxation treaty between the US and Switzerland, agreed to in June 2011, is heading towards Swiss approval, with the upper house of parliament giving it the green light Tuesday 13 December. It could face more difficulties in the lower house, which will now debate it.
The treaty is designed to replace a 1996 treaty. Both provide for judicial assistance in cases of tax fraud, but the new treaty defines the framework for this more precisely and admits tax evasion as well as fraud, in some cases, as grounds for a request for assistance.
Tax evasion is a crime, but not a penal offense in Switzerland, whose list of allowable tax deductions is far shorter than those of the IRS, and evasion has until now not been accepted as grounds for assistance.
The June agreement was amended in November after a parliamentary commission recommended, 7-3, that the addition be made: it allows for group requests covering several financial accounts to be made together and, significantly, bank data could be given to US authorities without the US first providing a name and account number, in a very limited number of cases.
In a separate set of talks, Switzerland and the US have been discussing the case of 11 Swiss banks that are under investigation by the US Department of Justice for illegally assisting Americans in the US to hide money offshore from the IRS, the tax arm of the US.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Italy’s new prime minister, Mario Monti, has told the country’s parliament, through his minister for relations with that body, that Italy should not seek a double taxation agreement with Switzerland along the lines of those with Germany and the UK.
But the opposition then accused him of not being open to negotiations with Switzerland, which has expressed its willingness to seek an agreement, and of not going after the CHF14-15 billion such an agreement could bring into the Italian government coffers.
The European Commission has said it is opposed to such agreements, which allow Switzerland to respect its banking secrecy laws and partner governments to collect tax revenues for their citizens holding Swiss bank accounts. The UK and German agreements call for Swiss financial institutions to collect withholding taxes on transactions, money that is paid to the foreign treasuries. Account holders then have the choice of coming forward and announcing their holdings in order to recuperate the tax, or remaining silent and forfeiting the tax.
In the sights of the IRS, but part of a much bigger picture
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Americans who create offshore shadow companies or foundations, clearly to avoid taxes and with the active help of a Swiss bank, could see their financial information shared with the IRS even if the US tax authority cannot provide their names, if parliament accepts recommendations of the upper house foreign affairs commission.
The commission agreed Thursday 10 November, in a 7 to 3 vote, to an amendment to the new double taxation treaty with the US, which parliament will consider in December. The amendment would allow group requests to be made: bank data could be given to US authorities without the US first providing a name and account number, in a very limited number of cases.
US, Swiss seek global bank solution, sooner rather than later
Meanwhile, the investigation into 11 Swiss banks by the US Justice Department continues. The US and Switzerland have been in talks for some time to find what Mario Tuor, spokesperson for the Swiss Tax Office calls “a global solution for all banks.”
There is no timeframe for finding such a solution, an official who asked not to be named has told GenevaLunch, but both sides say they want a solution sooner rather than later.
Switzerland has “made no offer to the US” over 11 banks
Tuor told GenevaLunch that Switzerland has made no offer for a lump sum payment, contrary to a Reuters “exclusive” story 3 November that mentioned a multibillion dollar settlement. Another Reuters reporter later quoted Tuor as saying Switzerland has not made an offer as part of the talks. He clarified to GenevaLunch Friday that no offer has been made by the Swiss, period.
In fact, says one official,who concurs, saying Switzerland has not made an offer, some people close to the case have discussed figures but these are far smaller than the several billion that Bloomberg and later, Reuters, mention.
The Reuters reporter in New York has qualified the Credit Suisse investigation by the IRS as part of a showdown between the two governments—a statement at odds with the Swiss government’s insistence on including in the new treatment the clarification that group requests can be made under some circumstances. “The move by the two Swiss banks to disclose American client names and account information is the latest event in a showdown between Switzerland and the United States over the withering tradition of Swiss bank secrecy,” according to reporter Lynnley Browning, who covers accounting and tax stories from the US for Reuters.
Browning repeated today, as news, information she says she gleaned a week ago from unnamed US “sources briefed on the matter”—despite it later being flatly denied by the Swiss government to another Reuters reporter in Zurich. Lynnley Browning, who has written articles for the New York Times in the past, frequently pitting the US against Switzerland as adversaries, writes 9 November that:
“Switzerland is trying to craft a deal with the United States that would cover its entire banking industry of some 355 banks. Switzerland had wanted a deal that covered accounts dating back to early 2009, when UBS AG , Switzerland’s largest bank, averted indictment and reached a $780 million deferred-prosecution arrangement with US officials. But the two letters from Credit Suisse and Clariden Leu suggest that US authorities are unwilling to accept a deal that would start with 2009 rather than the January 2002 date cited in the letters.”
Credit Suisse letters sent to clients at gov’t behest
Credit Suisse and its subsidiary bank Clariden Leu, this week sent out letters to some clients warning that their names will be turned over to the IRS, with Swiss government support, as a result of the investigations. Bloomberg reports that
“The IRS sought data for accounts owned through domiciliary companies in which clients are the beneficial owners, according to the letter. The Swiss Federal Tax Administration issued an ‘immediately executable’ order to the Zurich-based bank, which has no right to appeal, according to the letter. Taxpayers can consent to the SFTA handing over their account data to the IRS, or they can use the Swiss legal system to appeal a ruling by the SFTA that their account must be given to the IRS, according to the letter.
“‘Please be advised that Credit Suisse is not able to provide any information on whether or not information with respect to a specific account will be provided to the IRS,’ according to the letter, signed by managing directors Michel Ruffieux and Stephan Gussmann.”
The banks’ moves are being reported by some media outside Switzerland as a breakdown in Swiss bank secrecy but the information in the letters doesn’t reflect a change in practice which is based on the old 1996 tax treaty that allowed some group requests; the US reportedly has gleaned enough information from other cases to find patterns of fraud at 11 Swiss banks.
Catching major tax evaders in the future
Some US media are also incorrectly reporting that the amendment to the new treaty provides for an “automated” process. The treaty would simply clarify that some group requests could be accepted by Switzerland, a feature of the old 1996 treaty. The US is the only country to have such an agreement with Switzerland, according to Swiss officials.
“Tax fraud and the like” includes some cases of tax evasion
A significant change in the new treaty is that it will allow the US to request assistance in some cases of tax evasion and not just fraud.
The Federal Justice Department published a statement 31 March 2010 about the “amending protocol” of the new treaty that parliament will consider in December, noting that it “permits Switzerland to provide treaty assistance in cases not only of tax fraud, but also of continued and serious tax evasion.”
The commission included, in August, the preamble (see text) requested by the Federal Council that explicitly authorizes for the first time judicial assistance in a limited number of cases where American requests do not include a name and address. But there is a clear rider: the requests must be “proportionate” and “practicable”.
In other words, Bern continues to insist, fishing expeditions or mass requests for information are specifically ruled out. Switzerland remains firmly opposed to this, citing Swiss banking laws that protect privacy.
The amendment notes that the US must provide evidence of a “pattern of flagrant” behaviour and of a very serious effort either to defraud or to evade taxes involving “large sums of money”.
Amended treaty doesn’t provide catalog of suspicious behaviours
A minority of the foreign affairs commission called for a catalog of catalog to be drawn up that specifies what behaviour constitutes a pattern and is therefore considered suspicious and what is not, but the commission in the end voted against this. Le Temps in an article Friday morning points out that this could create legal problems in the future.
The amendment would apply only to the agreement with the US and not to other double taxation agreements, the commission’s chairman said Thursday evening.
The next step is for parliament to consider the commission’s recommendation, which calls for the treaty to be approved, with the amendment included.
The commission also recommended that parliament approve nine other double-taxation agreements as they stand, including those with France and the UK
Swiss federal government timeline of the UBS case and the double taxation treaty with the US
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The large multi-party centre is gaining ground in Switzerland, to the detriment of the main parties, early results from Sunday’s election for members of parliament seem to show.
Four of the governing parties, the right-wing UDC People’s Party and the centre-right PLR (Liberaux Radicaux), as well as the Christian Democrats (centre) and leftist Greens appear to be losing ground to two of the country’s new parties, the right and centre right environmental groups Vert Lib and PBD.
Swiss public broadcasting (SSR) stations, which track the parliamentary elections closely, provided their first projections at 19:00. Swiss polls closed earlier in the day and official results are generally released after midnight. Unofficial results are in for 23 of the 26 cantons, with intermediate results for Geneva, Vaud, and Zurich at 20:30. Only slightly more than half of the seats for the upper house were known.
Geneva‘s intermediate results show only a minor shift, with the Greens and Socialists each losing a seat in the lower house, but with centre left and environmentalists gaining the seats. Upper house: Liliane Maury Pasquier, Socialist, and Robert Cramer, Greens.
Vaud: Socialists and Greens have gained a seat each at the expense of the Vert’libs and the UDC, in the lower house.
Zurich: Vert’libs and centre-right PDC each gained a seat, with the UDC and centre-right PBD losing one each. Upper house: Verena Diener, Vert’lib and Felix Gutzwiller, PLR – with former UDC leader and federal councillor Christoph Blocher in third place for the two seats.
The map of voting, canton by canton, and all results are on TSR in French.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss Post is reminding citizens who vote by mail, 90 percent of them for federal elections, to mail in their ballots on time. Voters can use fast mail (A) up until Thursday 21 October and slower mail (B) until 18 October, observing collection times on mail collection boxes.
Swiss voters elect a new parliament 23 October, a political event that occurs every four years.
Parliament in Bern: Steady influx of foreigners could have impact on Swiss parliamentary elections 23 October
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The number of foreigners from European Union (EU) countries grew by 4 percent between the end of August 2010 and 2011, while other foreigners increased by 0.8 percent.
Foreigners now make up 22.3 percent of the Swiss population, new figures released 10 October by the Swiss Statistical Office show.
The new figure is one of the highest in Europe and is likely to play a role in parliamentary elections 23 October, with the right-wing UDC’s campaign “Stop massive immigration” running parallel to the elections. The issue of how to integrate foreigners and limit the number of immigrants is cropping up in other countries: David Cameron, UK prime minister, announced stiffer rules Monday 10 October, reviving the polemic in Britain.
The total number of resident foreigners in Switzerland 31 August was 1,751,301, with 1.3 million of those from the EU.
The greatest increases came from: Kosovo (+17,864), Germany (+14,395), Portugal (+9,816), France (+4,388) and Great Britain (+2m,365). The Kosovo jump is deceptive, however, since most of these were already in Switzerland but they became Kosovar citizens after the country became independent in February 2008. The shift is visible when the countries were numbers have fallen are counted: Serbia (-19,910), Bosnia-Herzegovinia (-1,079), Croatia (-977), Sri Lanka (-944) and Turkey (-264).
Italians remain the largest group of foreigners resident in Switzerland, followed closely by Germans and Portuguese.
Muehleberg peaceful anti-nuclear protest, ©2011 Herbi Ditl on flickr
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss parliament’s lower house Wednesday morning 8 June backed the government’s recommendation to close down the country’s nuclear energy plants, voting two to one in favour of several motions similar to the one sent to parliament by the government.
Nuclear power plants currently provide 39.3 percent of the country’s energy, hydroelectric and dams 55.8 percent (TSR has several charts on Swiss energy).
The vote sends a strong signal to the Swiss upper house, the senate, which will vote on the recommendations after the summer session, but no date has been set. It now appears likely that, in line with Wednesday’s vote, existing power plants will be shut down when their current licenses to operate come to an end, by 2034, and that no new plants will be approved.
BERN, SWITZERLAND – The finance commission of the Swiss parliament’s lower house has given its approval to new rules that would require Switzerland’s two largest banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, to increase their capital bases substantially above the amount required by Basel III global requirements.
Basel III rules were established by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and have been the subject of heated international debate in recent months.
The change in Swiss banking law, proposed to parliament by the governing Federal Council (cabinet), went through an upper house commission Monday.
It will now be debated in both houses this summer and, if approved, could be implemented starting in 2012, with a six-year period to gradually implement it.
The Swiss National Bank has thrown its support behind the tough new Swiss law, which was written after the government’s 2008 bailout of UBS during the global financial crisis.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The judicial commission of the upper house of the Swiss Parliament Friday called for tough new rules on genital mutilation to become part of the Swiss penal code. The greatest change would be to the location where the mutilation is carried out: current law limits this to Switzerland, but the new law, if it makes it through the parliamentary system, would allow charges to be pressed against anyone who is on Swiss territory and who has encouraged or carried out the practice, even outside Switzerland.
The modified law would close a loophole that has brought several cases into Swiss headlines in recent years, with children either mutilated in Switzerland or taken to their parents’ homeland to have it done, even though the children are growing up in Switzerland, where the practice is illegal. The parents are generally from a culture where genital mutilation is considered acceptable and they are often not well integrated into Switzerland themselves.
The commission argues that a change in the law would make it easier to bring charges against these human rights violations because it would eliminate current courtroom debates over definitions and proof.
The strong showing of Finland’s nationalist True Finns party in elections Sunday 17 April have put a damper on Portugal’s bid for a European Union financial bailout. The party zoomed from 6 to 39 seats in parliamentary elections, taking third place after the Conservative party, with 44 seats and the opposition Social Democrats with 42 seats.
The True Finns party turned the election into a vote over Finland’s willingness to back a rescue package for Portugal, which is currently negotiating one with the EU. Any such package requires a unanimous vote from the 17-member eurozone countries. The Conservatives will have to invite at least one of the other two parties to a coalition, reports Reuters, and while the Social Democrats are not against rescue packages, they oppose the current arrangements for funding them.
Links to other sites: Euronews, Reuters/The Globe & Mail, Guardian
Swiss banking secrecy intact with insistance on “no fishing expeditions”
Swiss parliament in session Photo ©Swiss parliament
Swiss parliament in session Photo ©Swiss parliament
Treaty agreements interpretations clearer, says Bern
Bern, Switzerland (GeenvaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Council is asking parliament’s authorization to amend double taxation treaties (DTT) with a number of countries, to more precisely define what is meant by “administrative assistance”. The term covers requests for help, from one government to another, in cases of suspected tax fraud or tax evasion.
The announcement 6 April comes two months after the council agreed that the amendments are necessary because the more precise interpretations were not available when the treaties were signed in June 2010. They will affect treaties with: Denmark, Finland, France, the UK, Qatar, Luxembourg, Mexico, Norway and Austria. A DTT signed with the US will also require an amendment, to be handled separately.
Parliament must be consulted for any changes to the treaties, under Swiss law.
Switzerland has in the past insisted that help could be provided only if a bank account owner was identified, but in February 2011 the ruling Federal Council agreed that an interpretation clause should stipulate that “in future indicating the name and address of the taxpayer and the information holder is no longer absolutely necessary for processing administrative assistance requests, provided that the identification occurs by other means and fishing expeditions are not involved.”
The interpretation clause is necessary, the council argues, to ensure that all states in the treaties have a level playing field and to avoid a “foreseeable obstacle” if Switzerland’s assistance is not deemed to be in line with the treaty because of varying intepretations. The clause will reduce “the risk of failure in the peer review process of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes”. the council says in a press release.
Tax assistance only for individual cases: amendments will not change this
Portugal’s Prime Minister Jose Socrates has handed his resignation to President Anibal Cavaco Silva. The Wednesday evening resignation follows the fourth defeat in parliament of his austerity plan. The country is now likely to have to turn to the European Union and the International Monetary Fund for a bailout, which Socrates has warned could prove tougher than his proposed plan.
Links to other sites: BBC, Forbes, Irish Times
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Basel Committee of the Bank for International Settlements has published for consultation its Pillar 3 proposed requirement for banks to regulate remuneration: notably, the long-term relationship between performance and various types of remuneration such as bonuses. The BIS published an initial outline in July 2010, but Monday 27 December it published the details of a change that is designed to avoid banks paying out high amounts of money to their managers without guarantees that the remuneration is linked to long-term performance.
Switzerland 22 December published for consultation, until March 2011, its own proposed new, tighter rules for banks in the wake of the global economic crisis and the government’s bailout of banking giant UBS at the end of 2008. One of the changes would create a mechanism for limiting bankers’ pay in the case of a bailout of a “too big to fail” bank that is “systemically” important to Switzerland’s financial and economic system, but the proposed Swiss rules do not go as far as capping pay or linking it to long-term performance for banks that are functioning independently of government aid.
Protestors strike Royals’ car
The UK Parliament’s lower house, the House of Commons, has approved, after a lengthy debate, a tuition fee increase for university students, from £3,000 to 9,000 a year. The vote came Thursday evening 9 December and student protestors promptly let their anger be known in London’s streets, striking, among other cars, one in which Prince Charles and his wife Camilla were riding, on Regent Street. Neither was hurt, but a window was broken and the car was sprayed with paint.
The vote now goes to the House of Lords and if approved, to the Queen for her signature before it becomes law.
2011 Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey, currently Foreign Affairs minister
Swiss Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf will become vice-president in 2011
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland continues to improve its score where women in politics are concerned, with the election by the parliament Wednesday 8 December of Micheline Calmy-Rey, Socialist, as president of the country for 2011 and Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf of the center-right Conservative Democratic Party as vice-president. The Swiss presidency is a one-year term that rotates among the members of the seven federal councillors who make up the cabinet, with parliament selecting the leader.
Calmy-Rey, who served as president in 2007, will follow another woman, Doris Leuthard, president in 2010.
Swiss media are focusing on the fact that Calmy-Rey received the lowest number of votes since 1919, which TSR public television attributes to her tendency to act alone, “notably in managing the affair with Libya, which irritated more than one member of parliament.”
Canton’s S&P financial rating up
Generous amnesty could bring in more revenues
Geneva, Switzerland: partly cloudy skies for those who fail to pay taxes
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva’s rating by Standard & Poor’s has risen from A+/stable to AA-/stable, the Tribune de Geneve reported Thursday 23 September, good news for taxpayers, but the bigger tax news came late Thursday night when the cantonal parliament voted in favour of a tax amnesty that would allow a 70 percent reduction in taxes that should have been filed in 2009 if they are filed by the end of 2011.
There are two catches, with the first a legal requirement for citizens to be allowed vote on the matter. The second is that some deputies, including the canton’s financial boss, David Hiler, believe the law flies in the face of Swiss law because the reductions are greater than those allowed by federal law.
The canton has received CHF133 million in amnesty revenues since the start of 2010, the Tribune quotes Green party member Sophie Forster Carbonnier as saying.
Swiss parliament in session Photo ©Swiss parliament
Election could create first European cabinet with women in majority
Complete coverage, Swiss Federal Council 2010 elections: background, Sommaruga win, Schneider-Ammann win
Update 09:00 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The world has a rare opportunity Wednesday 22 September to see what balance of power really means, as defined by the Swiss: parliament will elect two new councillors out of seven on the governing Federal Council, sometimes referred to in English as the cabinet. The parliamentary vote is the result of the resignation announced several weeks ago by two long-serving council members, Hans-Rudolf Merz in August and Moritz Leuenberger, in July. Both agreed to remain in office until new councillors were elected.
The Federal Council is at the heart of a political system that emphasizes continual balance and negotiation, with no one party holding the power. The seven members’ council debates are not public and they rule by consensus, so council decisions are announced only once they have come to an agreement on an issue or new law.
Collegiality, or not airing their differences, has been the norm for at least two decades, with occasional blips where one councillor is viewed by the others as stepping out of line. Christoph Blocher, member of the right-wing UDC party, upset the council with several public remarks in 2008 that were considered unrepresentative of the council’s stance on issues, and his failure to be re-elected sparked an ongoing Swiss debate over precisely how the main political parties should be represented on the council.
The election process and a solar bird overhead
The Federal Assembly, the body of both houses of parliament, will elect first a successor to Leuenberger, as the councillor who has served longer, then a successor to Merz.
Group of deputies reportedly planning law to “muzzle” Stauffer
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva politics, rarely calm, are heating up as Eric Stauffer, president of the Mouvement Citoyen Genevois (MCG), told Radio Cité Monday morning he will press charges against Guy Mettan, president of the canton’s Grand Conseil. Mettan, who heads the Geneva Press Club, last week labelled Stauffer a “specialist in violating” secrecy rules. Swiss law is strict on the obligation of employees, corporate but also political delegates, to respect confidential information. Stauffer accused Mettan of lying and says he will now press charges.
The issue of secrecy has been a hot one in Geneva politics for several months, with Stauffer often figuring in the heated exchanges.
The Catalan Parliament in Spain Wednesday morning voted to abolish bullfighting, that most traditional of Spanish art forms, entertainment, sports or butchery, the label depending on your point of view on a subject that has left few Spaniards indifferent. The parliament voted initially in favour of a ban in 2009, but to take effect a second vote this year was required. Catalonia thus becomes the first mainland Spanish region to abolish las corridas (bullfighting), although the fiestas to which they are sometimes linked will continue.
The vote was 66-55, with nine abstentions. The Canary Islands was the first Spanish region to vote against bullfighting, in 1991.
Links to other sites: Times, UK on 2009 initial vote, AFP/Swedishwire
Lower house of Parliament insists on referendum, motion now goes to commission
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The lower house of the Swiss parliament Wednesday afternoon repeated its earlier vote in favour of a popular referendum on the Swiss-US treaty covering possibly fraudulent use of some UBS bank accounts.
The upper house earlier in the day refused to consider taking the treaty to the Swiss population. The motion now goes to a special commission that meets Thursday to try to find a political compromise.
The treaty, agreed to by the ruling seven-member Swiss Federal Council, has fallen victim to political negotiations over taxing bank bonuses and related banking issues.
Cliff-hanger continues over treaty as lower house says yes – but with option to put vote to national referendum
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The right-wing UDC party held to its promise and supported the US-Swiss treaty covering a US request for judicial assistance for 4,450 UBS bank accounts. The treaty passed, 81 in favour, 61 against – with 54 abstaining, mainly UDC members. The vote in favour comes with a rider, however, that the option for a popular vote on the treaty should be exercised, forcing the two houses to now work out a compromise solution there. A popular vote would prevent Switzerland from meeting the treaty obligation to review all 4,450 accounts for the US by 31 August 2010.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The day of reckoning is here for the treaty between the US and Switzerland that covers an American request for judicial assistance with 4,450 UBS bank accounts suspected of being used for tax fraud purposes. A lively debate in the lower house of Parliament Tuesday morning and negotiations between parties by 09:30 Tuesday had resulted in:
- the UDC right-wing party making it known it will support the treaty because most of its demands have been met, specifically, that the centre-right parties will not support motions targeting greater control over the big banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, or bank bonuses, and that a motion will be passed to limit the Federal Council’s freedom to sign treaties;
- Socialists have said they will not support the treaty unless motions for more control over the banks and for taxes on bonuses are supported.
The UDC is the largest party in the lower house and its members votes against the treaty last week were responsible for its failure to get through Parliament. The upper house has voted in favour of the treaty. A second no vote in the lower house would kill the treaty.
Late Monday the upper house voted firmly against establishing a parliamentary commission to oversee an inquiry into the financial crisis and the UBS affair that led to the Swiss-US treaty, killing the proposal by the lower house.
Belgium could end up with as many as eight parties in a coalition government, after the NVA Flemish Separatist party appears to have won at least 27 of 150 seats in parliament, 30 percent of the vote, as ballot counting draws to a close. The strong result gives the party more seats than any other, but outspoken NVA leader Bart de Wever looks likely to have to tone down his rhetoric to participate in a coalition government of several parties.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The outcome of the Swiss-US treaty covering 4,450 UBS bank accounts is unlikely to be decided before Monday or Tuesday, 15-16 June, following a recommendation from a lower house of Parliament commission to reject the treaty or to add a clause to the parliamentary project requiring a popular referendum vote on it. The lower house economic commission, which recommends action to the house as a whole, voted 14-12 Thursday morning against accepting the treaty.
A popular vote, which would take time to organize, would jeopardize the treaty, which requires Switzerland to act on the US request for judicial assistance by completing its review of the 4,450 cases and delivering information on the accounts by the end of August 2010.
Reconciliation committee will get it Wednesday to attempt political parties’ compromise
Swiss parliament in session Photo®Swiss parliament
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss government’s painstaking efforts to come to a settlement with the US over the handling of 4,450 UBS bank accounts was dealt a serious blow Tuesday 8 June. The lower house of Parliament voted against the Swiss-US treaty 104 to 76, with 16 abstentions. The treaty must now go to a special committee of the two houses, which will try to find grounds for an agreement.
The US in 2009 asked for judicial assistance to obtain data about the accounts and their owners based on suspicions of tax fraud. Swiss banking secrecy laws normally prevent any data about bank accounts from being shared.
The upper house had approved the treaty last week.
Political tug of war
In the lower house the treaty, which covers one specific request for judicial assistance from the US, faced a left-right standoff over stronger control of the country’s two big banks, UBS and Credit Suisse. Socialists tied it to legislation that would limit bankers’ bonuses and a tougher policy on too-big-to-fail banks, moves that were firmly rejected by the right-wing UDC (People’s Party). The UDC is the largest party in the lower house, often a staunch defender of what it sees as Swiss cultural values, one of which is banking secrecy.
The parties of the centre have backed the treaty, saying it is in the national interest of Switzerland to do so, while insisting that it must be a one-time agreement that does not give ground on banking secrecy.
Switzerland’s banking secrecy laws are widely perceived to be linked to the right to privacy in Switzerland.
Year-long deadline to deliver the data looms
The treaty was drawn up in August 2009 and Switzerland has one year to review the bank accounts’ requests from the US and determine if the data should be delivered to the US Treasury Department. But a Swiss high court ruled in February that the federal government could not sign the treaty without consulting Parliament, which meant that the votes in the two houses would take place only in early June.
The parliamentary session ends 18 June and a “reconciliation” committee will meet only 9 June to try to hammer out an agreement that will allow the bill to pass a second vote, ensuring that the final days of the parliamentary session will be fraught with tension.
Links to other sites: Le Temps (Fre), NZZ (Ger), TSR (Fre) in Switzerland; Financial Times and New York Times, Corporate Justice blog discussion
Federal Palace in Bern, image from Wikipedia
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Federal Council, the country’s seven member executive, comes in for heavy criticism for its handling of the UBS affair with the United States late 2008 and early 2009. The report is published by the parliamentary joint Control Commissions (CC) 30 May.
The report documents a crisis of leadership at the very top and takes to task both then Finance Minister, Hans-Rudolf Merz for isolating himself and failing to involve his colleagues, and Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey and Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, who were involved in aspects of the case.
The government responded yesterday by saying it was aware of the structural reforms necessary in the government, and that it had already named a new state secretary for international finance before the release of the report.
The impact of changing tax laws
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Tribune de Geneve Thursday 27 May carries a feature story on the impact of the changing US tax collection system on Americans who live overseas, but also on Swiss who have worked in the US.
The article, entitled “US tax collector disgusts many dual nationals in Switzerland”, is linked to the upcoming 7 June debate in Parliament over the US-Swiss tax agreement covering UBS.
The article mentions several of the issues that have come up at US citizens’ meetings in Geneva, such as the 15% exit tax that must be paid by Americans who give up their citizenship, but it also points out that many Swiss who have worked in the US and did not declare income according to new IRS interpretations may be at risk for heavy penalties.
Background, GenevaLunch series on US citizen meetings over tax issues, in Geneva in 2009-2010
The Queen’s speech to Parliament Tuesday 25 May laid out the agenda of the new coalition government, with the accent put on reducing the budget. A new Office for Budget Responsibility is part of the plan. The new government’s agenda also includes higher capital gains tax, limiting the number of non-European Union immigrants and making UK airports more competitive.
Links to other sites, with highlights of the speech: BBC, Reuters, UK, Telegraph
