This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is aware
that tax evasion is facilitated by barriers to the international
exchange of information on tax matters.
The Assembly therefore welcomes the statement by the G20 leaders
at their London Summit on 2 April 2009 that “the era of banking
secrecy is over”, their readiness “to take agreed action against
those jurisdictions which do not meet international standards in
relation to tax transparency” and the publication that day by the Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of its progress
report on the jurisdictions surveyed by the OECD Global Forum in
implementing the internationally agreed tax standard, which requires exchange
of information on request in all tax matters for the administration
and enforcement of domestic tax law without regard to a domestic
tax interest requirement or bank secrecy for tax purposes. It also
provides for extensive safeguards to protect the confidentiality
of the information exchanged.
In this respect the Assembly notes with concern that the list
published by the OECD contains Council of Europe countries that
are not fully co-operating in tax information exchange, and that
the safeguards imposed may allow significant levels of tax evasion.
The Assembly refers to the OECD’s model double taxation convention
whose article 26 provides for the exchange of information on tax
matters, and calls for its full implementation.
The Assembly recommends that the Committee of Ministers of
the Council of Europe, in co-operation with the OECD:
review the effectiveness of
information exchange on tax matters between the 47 member states,
and take legal steps to improve it where necessary;
review the relevant Council of Europe conventions, notably
the Council of Europe Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance
in Tax Matters of 1988, and urge those member states that have not
signed or ratified this convention to do so without delay.
