Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

Prime Minister Juncker today gave his annual speech before the parliament.

Some paragraphs of the speech in 2000 are worth reading and sometimes commenting as they illustrate that the Luxembourg authorities do not want to adapt to the reality of today’s world.




En 1999, nous avons eu une loi contraignante sur la domiciliation des sociétés, qui devrait mettre fin aux activités illégales et frauduleuses en marge du secteur financier.
(In 1999, we had a constraining law on the domiciliation of companies, which should put an end to the illegal and fraudulent activities in margin of the financial sector.)

The law is not enforced, as the abuse of offshore scams through Luxembourg remains.



Nous voulons conserver le secret bancaire pour de bonnes raisons. Nous voulons le conserver tant que nos concurrents le maintiendront aussi.
(We want to preserve banking secrecy for good reasons. We want to preserve it as long as our competitors will maintain it too.)

He does not quote the reasons. The only “good” reason why banking secrecy should be preserved is that there are competitors that maintain as well banking secrecy.



Notre économie déborde de force et croît de manière robuste. (…) Nous pouvons être contents de l’état de notre économie et de nos finances. Nous pouvons être contents de nous, mais pas au point de nous surestimer ni de nous dépasser.
(Our economy overflows with strength and grows in a robust way. (…) We can be satisfied with the state of our economy and our finances. We can be satisfied with ourselves, but not to the point to over-estimate ourselves nor to get ahead of ourselves.)



Juncker cannot see the coming crisis.