Germany calls Switzerland a tax haven

PARIS, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Germany has urged the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development to list Switzerland, one of its members, as a tax haven.

In a meeting in Paris, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbruck said, "Switzerland offers conditions that prompt German taxpayers to evade taxes."

Switzerland, he said, "belongs on the blacklist," which currently lists 40 countries, but only three in Western Europe, the EU Observer reported Wednesday.

Seventeen of the OECD's 30 member countries, with Switzerland not among them, took part in the meeting.

Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg have been at odds with the European Union's attempts to change its banks secrecy rules, the Observer noted.

Currently, the Western European countries Lichtenstein, Andorra and Monaco are listed as tax havens.

The OECD said it would revise its tax havens list by the middle of 2009, the Observer reported.