Banking Secrecy Laws Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Banking Secrecy Laws - Essay Example The article talks about the evil practice of evading taxes and the topic has been narrowed down by the author and primarily focuses upon the citizens of Switzerland. There are about 52000 American depositors who have intentionally hidden some information regarding tax evasion with the help of their Swiss Bank accounts, the Swiss authorities are known for their secrecy and this is a double edged weapon and it is certainly proving out to be that way. The US government is putting extreme pressure on the Swiss government to provide them with information of the American citizens who have Swiss bank accounts. The US government has even launched a civil suit in Miami to get access to this pivotal information. The US government firmly believes that the American citizens have hidden their potential worth of about $ 14.8 billion in various Swiss bank accounts and recently a Swiss bank by the name UBS provided information important information to the US authorities of as many as 250 US citizens who have their bank accounts with the bank. The Swiss government is trying really hard to implement a tax system which will complement their secrecy but this has not been implemented yet. The French president has also got involved in this and he recently said that Switzerland would be put in a black list of the G-20 members for being a tax- haven nation.

What implications does the non-ratification of the European Essay

What implications does the non-ratification of the European Constitution have for the future development of the EU - Essay Example As of February 2007, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania, Slovenia and Spain have ratified this treaty. The referenda in Spain and Luxembourg showed that such a constitution was agreeable to most of the people. Moreover, countries like Finland, Germany and Slovakia had made all the necessary preparations for its ratification. The National legislation of the Member States has to be amended in order to ratify the European Constitution. Referenda of citizens’ opinions play an important role in this process of ratification of the European Constitution. The European Constitution cannot be implemented until and unless all the Member States ratify it. Implementation of the Constitutional Treaty requires the consent of all the Member States of the European Union. The Constitutional Treaty will not be enforced even if one Member State refuses to accept it. This has been termed as the vetoing of the Constitution. While the Constitutional Treaty was made the subject of national referenda quite some debate transpired in respect of national interests. The fact that such a constitution would prove to be of advantage to both the Union and its Member States was not debated (Shaw, 2005). The future of Europe has been discussed since the time that the European Council had undertaken a Declaration on the future of the European Union in the year 2001. This was subsequent to the Treaty of Nice 2000, which had projected the Union as being more democratic, transparent and effective. This Declaration known as the Laeken Declaration proposed the adoption of a Constitution for Europe. It was also agreed to form a Convention comprising of representatives from the governments and parliaments of the Member States. In this manner the foundation for a Constitutional Treaty for Europe was in Rome in the year 2004 and it was approved by the Heads of State and government of the Member States. In order