On 15 February 2011, two years after the Commission presented a Proposal for a Council Directive on Administrative Cooperation in the Field of Taxation (COM(2009) 29), a new Directive was finally adopted by the ECOFIN Council. The new Directive aims to strengthen tax information exchange within Europe. In this article, the author compares the major changes in the Directive to Council Directive 77/799/EEC and demonstrates their potential influence on information exchange in Europe.