Europe spies on your pay and savings

Brussels wants European Union countries to allow its bureaucrats the right to delve into millions of people’s personal financial details.

The wide-ranging powers would allow faceless officials across all 27 EU member states to access highly sensitive information right down to bank account transactions.

It means officials from the likes of Romania, Bulgaria, Estonia and Slovakia would be able to view the salary details, spending habits and savings of 50million British taxpayers without their knowledge.

Politicians and pressure groups reacted with outrage yesterday at the latest move towards an EU-wide surveillance state, describing the proposal as “a power-grab” by Brussels. They fear the move would create an all-powerful and unaccountable bureaucracy, adding to the threat of personal and financial information falling into criminal hands.

Bill Cash MP, chairman of the European Foundation think-tank, said: “This new shift in EU legislation is a real threat to every UK taxpayer.

“It is a true mark of how British citizens have come to live under Britain’s undemocratic surveillance state where their personal data is shared across Europe, without their consent or knowledge.” The scheme is the brainchild of the EU taxation commissioner Laszlo Kovacs, who tabled the proposal in August calling on member states to agree to give each other access to tax data to counter VAT fraud.

The Hungarian socialist wants to set up a new body of snoopers called Eurofisc to collect financial details across the EU to tackle fraudsters.

But Mr Cash said: “The personal data will enable the immediate European-wide access to taxpayers’ identities, activity and turnover data. That is completely unacceptable.

“This makes a mockery of Labour’s data protection legislation which does not protect people and it demonstrates the futility of so-called human rights legislative protection.”

Campaign group the TaxPayers’ Alliance warned the move would increase the risk of people’s personal data being misused.

Mark Wallace, campaign director, said: “The EU is always trying to gather yet more excessive powers to itself, and giving them copies of all taxpayers’ personal records would be a disaster

“If Revenue and Customs can’t keep this information secure it will be infinitely more exposed once it is shared with incompetent Eurocrats.”

A report by EU reform campaigners the European Foundation urged Britons to “take action to demand that their data is not shared across Europe under this Brussels power-grab”.

And the prospect of Eurocrats being granted the power to probe UK businesses could even hinder Britain’s economic growth, according to the Federation of Small Businesses.

Spokesman Stephen Alambritis said: “We’re very concerned that once it gets out that Brussels will be snooping on businesses, it will further encourage people to stay out of the VAT system.

“The knock-on effect is that businesses will stay small and growth will be restricted. We urge the British authorities to demand a re-think.” Kay Swinburne, a Tory member of the European Parliament and spokesman for the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, said: “Of course cross-border fraud needs to be dealt with by European cooperation but the EU is once again turning the principle of data-sharing on its head.

“We already grant other EU governments access to our fingerprint and DNA database and extending access to commercial information like this will only increase our vulnerability.”

Godfrey Bloom, an MEP for the UK Independence Party, said: “The idea that the Government is prepared to hand over personal data to Brussels is chilling. Time and time again the state seems to think the answer to every problem is a new database. Then they lose or give away our data.”

A spokesman for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs said: “Tackling VAT fraud is in the interests of all honest business and taxpayers.

“The proposal – if adopted – would improve the speed at which data necessary to the fight against fraud becomes available.

“The data referred to is already exchanged between authorised officials and the proposed change would simply accelerate the process, making fraud harder.”

The Kovacs proposal is set to be debated in European Council working groups but a unanimous vote will be needed among the 27 member states for the agreement to be enacted.