The European Union moved closer to agreement on a coordinatedclampdown on tax evasion as a total of nine countries backed aninitiative for automatic sharing of bank details acrossborders.

The bloc's six biggest nations won support from the Netherlands,Belgium and Romania for their proposal to adopt the U.S.'s FATCAinformation-exchange program, EU Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semetasaid in Dublin Friday. Semeta also said the 27-nation EU is closingin on updates to a savings tax accord as holdouts Luxembourg andAustria show willingness to compromise.

“I see a clear window of opportunity,” Semeta told journalistson the long-delayed measure requiring nations to exchangeinformation on savings income across borders. “Considering thestrong political will, I think we'll be able to manage” anagreement on it by next month, he said.

Governments from the U.K. to Poland are eyeing what thecommission estimates is 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) of losttax revenue as many European nations struggle to narrow budgetdeficits. Politics is also spurring the initiative, notably inFrance, where President Francois Hollande's popularity has slumpedafter his budget minister resigned and admitted having an offshorebank account following months of denials.

The message to anyone avoiding taxes is that “the places you canhide are getting smaller and smaller and fewer and fewer,” U.K.Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said at a joint pressconference with his counterparts from Germany, France, Italy, Spainand Poland. That followed a meeting of EU finance ministers in theIrish capital.

Luxembourg, one of the countries that previously resisted givingup its banking secrecy rules, dropped its opposition April 10,though Finance Minister Luc Frieden said yesterday that he wantsEurope to win broader global support for the initiative within theGroup of 20 nations.

“We will play a very constructive part in this,” Frieden said inan interview. Yet we need to “ensure a level playing field. Ourpartners in the G-20 must make sure that the new trend we see, theautomatic exchange of information, will become the global standard.Otherwise, we risk the delocalization of capital out ofEurope.”

The position of Austria, the other EU nation that has defendedbanking secrecy, may also be shifting.

Tax Paradise

Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter lashed out in front ofreporters at the U.K. for harboring “money-laundering paradises”and said the U.S. needs to reciprocate any European initiative byhanding over information from the “tax havens” of Delaware andNevada. Still, she didn't voice opposition to plans in the meeting,Semeta said.

“Austria is seriously considering the way ahead,” he said. “Shedidn't say anything against the proposals, and I consider thatprogress.”

Semeta said the European Commission has years of technical workready to service the “surge” in political interest in the sharingof bank information across borders. While a European system may notreplicate the U.S.'s FATCA system exactly, it can probably be madecompatible, he said.

The commission will bring a plan for EU finance ministers toconsider May 14. If approved, it can then be considered by thebloc's leaders at a Brussels summit on May 22.

“The tools are already on the table waiting to be seized,”Semeta said. This is “about fairness and EU solidarity.”

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