Berlin    03-01-2010

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has decided that Berlin should try to buy information on secret Swiss bank accounts held by its citizens -if it can do so ‘legally’.

Reports say that the information could help retrieve as much as €200 million in unpaid taxes.

However despite the potential legal and diplomatic difficulties that will no doubt follow such a move, Ms Merkel seems to have set her mind to it.

To purchase the data could be breaching privacy laws in both countries and will put the German government on a direct collision course with Switzerland.

As it stands, the Swiss see this as a breach of good faith and their   government intends to enact legislation to codify its position making a data purchase of this nature illegal.

The tax irregularities have been going on for decades – and everyone has known about them on both sides of the border – why do something now?

Switzerland is not a member of the EU and thus makes it a perfect target for cheap [or expensive!] attacks from opportunistic neighboring countries – like this apparent action seems to be.

Public opinion in Germany – with one of highest taxes regimes in Europe – seems to be in favor of the move, and this could perhaps explain Ms Markel’s’ stand more than anything else because she has domestically lost a lot of support in recent months.

Berlin sees in Switzerland a tax haven that has allowed wealthy Germans to park mountains of Euros – billions by some estimates – without paying tax on them.

While sharing many cultural similarities, the relationship between the Germans and the Swiss have never been very close – the small peaceful Alpine nation has always been and remains wary of its historically overbearing northern neighbor.