Calmy-Rey and Frattini focus on tax problems

Fiscal issues were at the centre of bilateral talks between Swiss and Italian foreign ministers in Bern on Thursday.

Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey admitted that the tax dossiers were a “real thorn in our relations” but didn’t want to talk about a “crisis”.

She blamed the blocked negotiations on a bilateral double taxation agreement, Switzerland being placed on an Italian blacklist of tax havens and “discriminatory measures” against Swiss companies in Italy.

She also said Switzerland “struggled to understand” Italy’s refusal to ratify an agreement between Switzerland and the European Union on fraud.

For his part, Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini acknowledged a “lack of understanding” between the two countries, but spoke of just a “small problem”, adding that it was necessary to avoid it becoming a “large problem”.

During the meeting, Calmy-Rey pointed out that about 500,000 Italian passport holders were living in Switzerland. She added that they form the largest foreign community in Switzerland, are very well integrated and contribute to the strengthening of the Italophone element in Switzerland’s quadrilingual culture. In addition, 52,000 Italian nationals commute to Switzerland to work every day.  

Calmy-Rey and Frattini also stressed that Switzerland and Italy were very close economic partners. Italy is Switzerland’s second-largest trading partner. Switzerland in turn is Italy’s fifth-largest trading partner.