Finally, the European Union (EU) got its way this summer when the EU Savings Directive completed its tortuous path through the organisation’s decision-making process. Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg, long portrayed as the betes noires blocking a consensus, agreed to impose a graduated withholding tax on non-resident account holders – a compromise that was good enough to seal the Directive’s success.
Luxembourg had understandably been dragging its feet on reaching an agreement because of the favourable position in which an exclusive EU Directive would have left rival centres such as Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
