On Tuesday, the European Union added Antigua and Barbuda, Belize and the Seychelles to its blacklist of tax havens, a mechanism deemed ineffective and “meaningless” by the NGO Oxfam.
The decision was taken by EU finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday.
At the same time, they removed the British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica and the Marshall Islands from the list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, these entities having accepted changes to their legal framework demanded by the EU.
This European instrument, supposed to combat tax evasion by multinationals and large fortunes, had been created in December 2017 after several scandals, including the “Panama Papers” and “LuxLeaks”. Sanctions against “blacklisted” countries can include the freezing of European funds.
The blacklist now includes 16 jurisdictions. In addition to the three entities added on Tuesday, it includes American Samoa, Anguilla, the Bahamas, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Russia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.
“How much longer will the EU persist in this absurd exercise? The list is meaningless. It leaves out zero-tax countries like the British Virgin Islands and fails to screen countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as EU tax havens like Luxembourg and Malta”, said Chiara Putaturo, tax expert at Oxfam.
