Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

BusinessWeek reported that at a meeting of finance ministers yesterday in Brussels, Germany's finance minister that he doesn't need to apologize to neighbors such as Switzerland for accusing them of aiding tax evasion

Steinbrueck compared Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein with one of the world's poorest nations, Burkina Faso, because the four European nations had boycotted talks on tax evasion last year.

He said they shouldn't complain that they now appear on a black list published by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development.

"They all could certainly have come. And obviously I'll also invite them to the follow-up conference in Berlin in June: Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Austria and Ouagadougou," Steinbrueck said.

Ouagadougou, the capital of the struggling west African nation, learned in 2008 that the World Bank had named the country the least favourable on the continent for investors.

Steinbrueck is excessive. But it is true that some hove these jurisdictions are like developping countries for their justice, their police, the missing databases (judiciary judgement online, balance sheet database)... when they find the money for there misleading communication to deny to be a tax haven even though this is much more a business and banking haven situation (offshore abuses, scams...).