On Tuesday, the European Union (EU) added ten territories to its black list of tax havens, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in an annual review that also resulted in the departure of Panama, Uruguay and Peru from the list.
Thanks to the listing process, dozens of countries abolished their harmful tax regimes and adjusted to international standards of fairness and transparency,”
stated European Commissioner for Finance Pierre Moscovici.
In December 2017, the EU adopted its first list of tax havens in response to scandals such as the Panama Papers, which revealed how the Mossack Fonseca law firm created societies to supposedly evade taxes on a global scale.
Of the 17 initial jurisdictions, including Panama, the list evolved over the months to a total of five – Samoa, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guam – to which they added another ten on Tuesday.
The European finance ministers approved, during a meeting in Brussels, the inclusion of Aruba, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Oman, UAE, Vanuatu and Dominica on the blacklist for not meeting international standards, according to Moscovici.
Panama accelerated several reforms after the scandal of the Panama Papers to protect its financial system and signed several agreements with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), including the automatic exchange of information.
The EU, which reduces the number of territories on its black list, expressed its determination to continue with its initiative to fight against tax evasion and announced the monitoring of Russia, Mexico and Argentina.