Luxembourg urged Germany on Thursday to tone down its rhetoric in a row over how best to fight tax evasion.

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, already under fire in Luxembourg, Austria and Switzerland for repeated calls to crack down on tax havens, caused outrage last week when he compared the Swiss to “Indians” running scared from the cavalry.

“We should come back to a tone that’s not dictated by a country’s size,” Luxembourg’s Treasury and Budget Minister Luc Frieden told reporters at a meeting of European Union leaders in Brussels.

The European partners are trying to agree a position for the Group of 20 summit on April 2, including a call on the G20 countries to fight tax evasion and ensure better cooperation from tax havens.

Juncker also sharply criticised pressure on Luxembourg and Switzerland’s banking secrecy in the interview with the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, saying the French and German stance was tainted by arrogance and “mediocre” populism.