Brussels, 22 January 2018

S&D Euro MPs have warned that the EU will lose credibility if European finance ministers decide to remove half of the non-cooperative jurisdictions tomorrow, just one month after drawing up a blacklist of tax havens.

Slamming the lack of transparency in this decision making process, S&D Group spokesperson for economic and monetary affairs Pervenche Berès stated today:
 
"In December, the EU took the lead in the fight against tax havens by drawing up a list of 17 non-cooperative jurisdictions. It now risks losing a lot of its credibility.
 
"The EU council of finance ministers' plan to remove eight countries from the blacklist of tax havens needs to be publicly accounted for. Among the lucky ones is Panama, the tax jurisdiction that gave us the Panama Papers scandal. It is very hard to understand how a jurisdiction that was blacklisted in December has rehabilitated itself in just one month with no real assessment of the progress they have made in the fight against tax fraud or tax evasion.
 
"We are calling for full transparency. The commitments made by these jurisdictions and those already on the greylist should be made public and thoroughly monitored. The EU must be in the position to assess their implementation before deciding to remove a jurisdiction from the blacklist."