At the close of a one-day summit, final conclusions flagged by Van Rompuy called on member states to complete adoption of EU regulations to implement the information sharing regime by end-2013.

Tax evasion on EU summit agenda

The summit of the European Union that has opened in Brussels is expected to be focused on addressing tax evasion by relaxing bank secrecy rules beginning with January 2015.

Addressing the summit, Euro-Parliament President Martin Schulz said tax evasion costs the EU about a trillion euros each year, or four times the Union spends on education.

Austria and Luxemburg remain staunch opponents of relaxing bank secrecy. Yielding to their insistence, the EU finance ministers vetoed a directive on sharing information on bank deposits when they met on May 14.

Voice of Russia, AFP, TASS