Evading taxes is almost a national pastime in European nations such as Greece, Spain and Italy, and for years their governments largely looked the other way.

On Monday, the 27 nations of the EU will meet in Brussels to focus on how to boost growth and jobs.

But as the southern European nations struggle with a debt crisis that threatens to overwhelm the European Union, their recently installed governments feel they must become more like their more solvent northern neighbors, where the crime of tax evasion is taken seriously.

Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and other countries are raising taxes and clamping down on those who have found creative ways not to pay them. ...

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