Last year, the UK as well as Germany signed with Switzerland a Tax Agreement, the so-called Rubik agreements. Under this agreement the secrecy of UK residents who have Swiss bank accounts would be protected in return for a withholding tax and a percentage of their capital. Direct taxation is the sole responsibility of Member States yet member states are not free to conclude bilateral agreements in this policy area. According to Brussels the agreement breaches the EU Savings Taxation Directive. The European Commission is also concerned with the impact that the tax agreements might have on the revision of the Savings Taxation Directive, which has been blocked by Austria and Luxembourg in the Council, and is intended to broad disclosure requirements to bank accounts held by member states’ nationals abroad.

Unsurprisingly, the European Commission has threatened to open infringement proceedings before the ECJ against the UK and Germany if they refuse to change the bilateral tax agreements with Switzerland. According to the Financial Times the European Commissioner for Taxation, Algirdas Semeta, said, "If we are unable to sort out these problems, then it is clear that as guardians of the treaty we have to proceed with the instruments that are in our hands." George Osborne and Wolfgang Schäuble have therefore been told to renegotiate the terms of their agreements with Switzerland, removing the parts overlapping with EU law.

On 5 March, according to Europolitics, Algirdas Semeta, in a letter addressed to Margrethe Vestager, Danish Minister of Finance, whose country presently holds the EU Presidency, warned all member states against signing bilateral tax agreements with Switzerland, similar to the ones signed by the UK and Germany. He stressed "While member states are free to enter into international agreements, be they bilateral or multilateral, such agreements must not include any aspects which overlap with areas in which common action by the European Union has been taken or is envisaged," consequently "member states should refrain from negotiating, initiating, signing or ratifying agreements with Switzerland, or any other third state, insofar as any aspects regulated at EU level might be touched upon".

The Tax Commissioner believes that the UK and Germany will renegotiate soon the terms of their agreements with Switzerland, according to the EUobserver he said at a press conference "We have our reading of the agreements which says very clearly they have to be changed and that is what Germany and the UK are ready to do. It is up to Switzerland to decide what they will do, but I do not think we should take hostage other agreements currently being negotiated."

It is important to recall that the Community’s external competence, its capacity to negotiate and conclude binding international agreements, may be either exclusive or shared. According to the European Court of Justice case law external competence derives from the existence of explicit internal competence hence the Community has exclusive external competence, if an international agreement concluded by Member States belongs to an area which is already covered by Community law, or if the effectiveness of Community's internal rules may be affected by that agreement. Thus, the Community may have exclusive external competence in areas of law where it only has shared internal competence. In fact, Algirdas Semeta stressed in his letter, above-mentioned, “The principle of the exclusive competency of the EU vis-à-vis the exterior must be respected […]. This could also concern the banking services and investment services.”