Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Peter Macfarlane has reported that last week Nicolas Sarkozy relaunched attacks on the two tax haven principalities bordering France: Andorra and Monaco, as well as the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. He said that would “review its relations” with neighboring financial havens such as Luxembourg, Andorra and Monaco. The Sarkozy announced that he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would be attending a summit in London in early April at which the matter would be discussed further
As I already said President Sarkozy is co-prince of Andorra and it was not fair to criticise Luxembourg without taking into account Monaco and above all Andorra. It is like the “Stop tax Haven Abuse Act” (that does not identify Monaco and Andorra as tax havens) that does not quote Delaware as a tax haven.

Paris dispatched an envoy Christian Fremont to Andorra to put further pressure on the Andorran government, who have otherwise been distracted this week by record snowfalls, reports our man in Andorra. Peter Macfarlane observed that Andorra is the only European country with bank secrecy written into its constitution, and has been blacklisted as “uncooperative” by other European authorities in the past, along with Liechtenstein, another mountainous tax haven principality.