FDF - Federal Department of Finance of the Swiss C : Conclusion of talks held by Federal Councillor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf at WEF Annual Meeting

Bern, 25.01.2014 - Today, to conclude her talks at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2014, Federal Councillor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf participated in the Informal Gathering of World Economic Leaders (IGWEL) and met with Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD. During her three days in Davos, the Head of the Federal Department of Finance (FDF) held talks with numerous finance ministers and other high-ranking politicians.

Federal Councillor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf also met with her Dutch counterpart, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, today. On the preceding two days, she had meetings with the finance ministers Anders Borg (Sweden), Michael Noonan (Ireland) and Ali Babacan (Turkey). During a dinner with Germany's Finance Minister, Wolfang Schäuble, both sides noted with satisfaction that, after the EU trilogue on the third country regime in MiFID II, there should be no further obstacles standing in the way of implementing the market access agreement between Switzerland and Germany.

During her meeting with Italy's Finance Minister, Fabrizio Saccomanni, Federal Councillor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf discussed the progress made in the ongoing talks on bilateral financial and tax issues. In addition, she was joined by Federal Councillor Johann Schneider-Ammann for a meeting with the French Finance Minister, Pierre Moscovici, during which the parties took stock of the bilateral dialogue on tax issues.

In the talks with Angel Gurría, Secretary-General of the OECD, Federal Councillor Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf confirmed Switzerland's willingness to play a constructive and active role in the development of a global standard for the automatic exchange of information (AEI). Moreover, both sides acknowledged Switzerland's signing of the OECD/Council of Europe Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, as well as the progress made within the framework of the Global Forum's peer review.

The automatic exchange of information was also discussed during the talks with the European Commissioner for Taxation, Algirdas Šemeta. Other topics addressed on this occasion included the current status of the discussions on business taxation, as well as the ongoing negotiations on the taxation of savings agreement.

Brigitte Hauser-Süess, Head of FDF Communications
Tel. [phone], [e-mail]