Austria felt imense pressure on Wednesday to reveal more about tax evaders. The senior officials of the European Union called that an automatic information sharing system should be used more widely and rapidly within the bloc.

The lack of a single tax authority governing all 27 E. U. members has been a major reason to enable Austria and Luxembourg to make their tax affairs more opaque than other members of the bloc. The E. U. powers like France and Germany are angered by this.

Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen, a spokeswoman for Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said, "It is in Austria's best interest to jump on board, rather than resist the inevitable shift towards more transparency that is taking place both in Europe and worldwide".

Luxembourg agreed to ease its banking secrecy rules last month. However, Austria was the only country that refused to share the information, about interest income earned in Austrian banks by foreign clients, with their home governments.

The commission clearly said on Wednesday that a legislation would be presented that would require more extensive information sharing between banks and financial authorities in all E. U. countries. The measures are slated to be implemented in coming weeks and will share earnings from dividends, capital gains and royalties across the European Union.