Leuthard wins G20 concessions from Sarkozy

Swiss President Doris Leuthard met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Wednesday after a meeting scheduled last month was abruptly cancelled due to Sarkozy’s “heavy agenda”.

Leuthard wrung some concessions from Sarkozy after being snubbed in June when the French president decided at the last minute to watch the French football team play against South Africa in the World Cup rather than meet with Switzerland's head of state.

In the event, France lost the game 2-1 and was knocked out of the tournament.

But after his meeting with Leuthard, Sarkozy sounded conciliatory while declaring that Switzerland was "an essential partner for reforming the international financial system".

The pair met for 45 minutes about international financial governance and economic relations between Paris and Bern.

Leuthard said afterward that Switzerland gained France's support for involvement in future international talks on global financial regulation.

France is to take over the presidency in November of the G20 group of countries, which is proposing to introduce finance reform in the next year.

Switzerland has the seventh largest banking centre in the world but due to its small population it remains outside the G20.

The group comprises the finance ministers and central bank governors of the world’s 20 largest economies, including 19 countries and the European Union.

Because the G20 is taking on an increasingly important role in crafting international agreements, including ones governing banks, Switzerland is seeking a way to make its voice heard, given the impact these will have on its financial services industry.

Leuthard indicated at a press conference at the Swiss embassy in Paris that Sarkozy had agreed that officials from Bern would be involved in the G20's preparatory meetings ahead of a summit next year.

"The sherpas from our two countries are going to meet in the weeks to come to define the themes to which Switzerland can make a contribution," she said.

The federal department of the economy earlier said it is justified for the Swiss “to be able to participate in the decision making on themes for which the (country’s) financial centre plays a significant role”.

Sarkozy's snub last month came after diplomatic relations between France and Switzerland were already strained over the theft of account data from the Geneva branch of HSBC Private Bank.

The French government has said it is using the information to track down several thousand of its citizens suspected of cheating on taxes through Swiss bank accounts.

The data was seized by investigators in France from the home of Hervé Falciani, an IT worker formerly employed by HSBC in Geneva who copied computer records from the bank before fleeing Switzerland.

The Swiss have complained bitterly about foreign governments using stolen Swiss bank data to track down cases of tax evasion, although the French insist they did not pay for the information, unlike Germany.

The German government paid 2.4 million euros for a CD from Switzerland containing stolen bank data.

That led to the investigation of 1,100 clients with accounts at Credit Suisse, and raids last week of the bank’s 13 branches in Germany.

The French government claims it has information about 3,000 citizens with Swiss bank accounts.

And former budget minister Eric Woerth, now labour minister, has been outspoken about Switzerland’s role as a tax haven.

The HSBC whistle blower Falciani left Switzerland after being investigated by Swiss police, who arrested him at his office in Geneva and searched his home.

He was released but was told to be available for further questioning, however, the next day he drove across the border and headed to the French Riviera, where his parents have a home.

At the request of Swiss investigators, French police seized a laptop, notepad, personal computer and a smartphone belonging to Falciani.

The prosecutor in Nice, Thierry de Montgolfier, said computer data on 79,000 clients and 20,000 companies was uncovered with help from the IT worker.

The French passed on the infomation to authorities in Switzerland but not before copying it and also passing on pertinent details to the Spanish government, without informing the Swiss ahead of time.

Leuthard brought up the HSBC affair with Sarkozy who promised that in future such cases that Switzerland would be informed of such transfers of information in advance.

On another less contentious issue, Leuthard announced that the French president would be attending the 13th Francophonie summit, planned for October 22-24 in Montreux, overlooking Lake Geneva.

Held every two years, the summit gathers heads of state and officials from more than 70 French-speaking countries, with more than 3,000 delegates expected.

In announcing Sarkozy's participation, Leuthard, from the German-speaking canton of Aargau, came in for ribbing from the French-language Swiss press for using "Franglais."

The French president would be one of three "lead speakers" at the summit, the Swiss president said, using the words in English.