On the proposal for a Council decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the Union, of the Amending Protocol to the Agreement between the European… Union and the Swiss Confederation on the automatic exchange of financial account information to improve international tax compliance

The proposal is an opinion to the Amending Protocol to the Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the automatic exchange of financial account information to improve international tax compliance, which was concluded in 2015.

The Agreement provides the legal basis for the reciprocal automatic exchange of financial account information between the Member States and the Swiss Confederation. The main objective of the Amending Protocol is to improve administrative cooperation in the area of direct and indirect taxation in the following ways:

● to ensure that the automatic exchange of financial account information is in line with the updated Common Reporting Standard (CRS) developed by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and with the respective EU rules. i.e. the Council Directive (EU) 2023/226 (DAC8), which implemented the latest amendments to the CRS within the EU. It should be highlighted that as a result of the recent update of the CRS, its scope was extended to cover electronic money products and central bank digital currencies. Furthermore, the updates also contain provisions to ensure an efficient interaction between the CRS and the separate Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework;

● to ensure mutual assistance in the recovery of VAT claims. It should be underlined that the amendments align as much as possible with the relevant provisions of the EU-Norway Agreement, which, in turn, replicates the EU Recovery Directive;

● to update the legal reference on data protection legislation: all the references to the repealed Directive 95/46/EC were removed and replaced with references to the GDPR (i.e. Regulation (EU) 2016/679). It should be noted that Switzerland is the beneficiary of an EU adequacy decision concerning data protection.

Including the above listed changes to the Agreement would result in better cooperation based on common rules and enhance the fight against tax evasion and money laundering, thus bringing added value for both the Member States and Switzerland. The modifications of CRS will apply from 1 January 2026 and - in line with that - the respective provisions of DAC8 will apply in the EU from that onwards.

According to Article 218(6)(b) TFEU, the Council can only adopt the decision to conclude the agreement after the European Parliament gives its opinion.

The rapporteur welcomes the conclusion of the Amending Protocol to the Agreement between the European Union and the Swiss Confederation on the automatic exchange of financial account information as it is an important step in continuing and deepening the administrative tax cooperation between the parties. In line with the new Article 4s inserted into the Agreement by Article 1 (8) of the Amending Protocol, the rapporteur urges the Member States and Switzerland to take all necessary measures to explore the extension of the mutual assistance to other - direct and indirect - tax claims within a four-year period following the first day of January after the signature of the Amending Protocol.

In view of the technical nature of the proposal and the urgency of adopting the proposal, your rapporteur proposes that Parliament approves the proposal without amendments pursuant to a simplified procedure without amendments (rule 52). However, the rapporteur would like to raise that the Parliament should be involved at an earlier stage of the process and have more time to prepare its opinion next time.

The rapporteur declares under her exclusive responsibility that she did not include in her report input from interest representatives falling within the scope of the Interinstitutional Agreement on a mandatory transparency register, or from representatives of public authorities of third countries, including their diplomatic missions and embassies, to be listed in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.