BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — On April 3, Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung published materials it claimed came from the Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based firm that sells offshore shell companies, exposing alleged involvement of a number of world leaders and their circles in tax havens schemes.
"The [Netherlands EU] presidency has decided to put the so-called Panama Papers on the agenda of the informal Ecofin [meeting] in Amsterdam on April 22," Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the defense minister of the Netherlands said at a plenary session of the European Parliament.
She added that during the meeting the European Commission will be invited to present the policy reaction, including the reactions against tax fraud, while ministers would be invited to exchange their views on the issue.
Mossack Fonseca refused to validate the information contained in the leaks and accused reporters of gaining unauthorized access to its proprietary documents. It warned that using unlawfully-obtained data was a crime that it would not hesitate to punish by legal means.
