France, Germany, the UK, Italy and Spain have entered into a pilot multilateral exchange facility based on the model used to deal with the US's Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The objective of the pilot exchange facility is to deter tax evasion and to provide a template for a wider multilateral exchange of information among EU Member States.

In a letter to Commissioner Šemeta, as reported by European news agency, Europolitics, France, Germany, the UK, Italy and Spain also called upon Member States to agree without further delay proposals to amend the Savings Directive which up to now remained in a state of impasse. Luxembourg has recently indicated that it will begin implementing the system of automatic information exchange between tax administrations.

Commissioner Šemeta has responded with a press release stating “I am very pleased to see that, over the past few days, many of the Member States have reviewed where they stand on these issues [referring to automatic exchange of information and tax evasion] and intensified their political will to act. Now it is time to put words into action. I hope to see rapid adoption of our proposals for a stronger EU stance against tax fraud and evasion”

The Commissioner's emphasis here may be on the word “our”. The overriding objective for the EU remains the finalisation of a stronger Savings Directive. While it probably helps the cause that Member States are making more robust noises about information exchange, the EU mechanism to deal with offshore savings remains the Savings Directive.