WRITTEN QUESTION E-2205/99 by Astrid Lulling (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Searches carried out at the homes of Belgian frontier workers employed in Luxembourg's banking sector.
Date: 1999-11-29
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Belgium, Luxembourg, bank, banking secrecy, free movement of workers, frontier worker, search, tax authorities

8.8.2000

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 225 E/73

(2000/C 225 E/072)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2205/99

by Astrid Lulling (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(29 November 1999)

Subject: Searches carried out at the homes of Belgian frontier workers employed in Luxembourg(cid:146)s banking

sector

Investigators from the financial section of the Brussels CID conducted searches on Saturday, 30 October
1999 at the Belgian residences of employees of the Kredietbank in Luxembourg.

A large number of frontier workers had already received from the special tax inspectorate in Belgium a
questionnaire requiring them to list their accounts with the KBL, the amount of income generated by
savings and the nature of the transactions carried out via these accounts.

Does the Commission share the opinion of the Luxembourg union of bank staff which denounces as
to frontier workers to violate
scandalous and defamatory these actions which are an incitement
Luxembourg(cid:146)s rules on banking secrecy with which they are required to comply by Luxembourg law?

Does it believe that making criminals of frontier workers in this way is compatible with the right of
workers to freedom of movement and the conditions of employment deriving from the labour law in the
country of employment?

What measures would it contemplate, where necessary, to guarantee that the right of workers to freedom
of movement is not obstructed by actions on the part of the authorities of the country of residence of
frontier workers which merit the description of intolerable psychological pressure?

Answer given by Mr Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(28 January 2000)

There are no rules on bank secrecy in Community law.

From the point of view of the legal instruments adopted by the European Union in the field of judicial
cooperation on criminal matters, there is nothing that would prohibit the Belgian financial police from
searching the houses of people working in Luxembourg banks. Again, there are no legal provisions in the
acquis on cooperation in criminal matters that would prohibit the Belgian authorities from sending out
questionnaires to frontier workers.

As these measures do not discriminate on the basis of the nationality of the people concerned, the
Commission does not see them as obstacles to freedom of movement for workers.

(2000/C 225 E/073)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2214/99

by Cristiana Muscardini (NI) and Sergio Berlato (UEN) to the Commission

Subject: Oilseed sector and the Millennium Round

(29 November 1999)

It is common knowledge that the outcome of the compromise reached over Agenda 2000 at the European
Council meeting in Berlin was unsatisfactory for the oilseed sector. This sector deserved greater attention,
to protect it from international (cid:129) and particularly American (cid:129) competition. It is a sector which in Italy
alone accounts for some 90 000 firms. The agreement reached at the last meeting of the Council of
Ministers for Agriculture over the EU document to be presented at the forthcoming WTO negotiations in
Seattle places special emphasis on the multifunctional character of the current European agricultural
model.