"Citizens with tax arrears should not be given any opportunity to undermine global competitiveness by hiding away capital investments and incomes. The agreement with Monaco is a major achievement in an already successful Nordic campaign to stop tax evasion. We are demonstrating here that the Nordic region plays a responsible role on the international playing field," says Halldór Ásgrímsson, the General Secretary of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

Signed information exchange agreements provide the tax authorities with access to information about capital investments and incomes on all tax evaders and also help reveal assets not declared at home. For constitutional reasons, the agreements are entered into on a bilateral basis and are passed in the countries' parliaments before taking effect.

Since negotiations began in spring 2007 the Nordic countries have entered into information exchange agreements with Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Dominica, Grenada, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Jersey, the Netherlands Antilles, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, the Turcs and Caicos Islands, Gibraltar, the Grenadines, the Cook Islands, Samoa, St. Vincent, St. Kitts and Nevis, San Marino, and St. Lucia. That places the Nordic countries in a leadership position in the ongoing global work to combat tax evasion.

The member countries of the Nordic Council of Ministers decided as early as 2006 to enter into negotiations with tax jurisdictions to combat international tax evasion. This co-operation strengthens the negotiation position of the Nordic countries and keeps down the cost of the countries' negotiation work.

The agreement was signed on 23 June 2010 at a ceremony in the Norwegian embassy in Paris.

Contact: Torsten Fensby, Project Manager, Nordic Council of Ministers.

Tel. +33 678 251 289

Read more about agreements to combat tax evasion