Criticism growing for EU Blacklist

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

October 28, 2022 – International organizations are joining Phillip Davis, Bahamian Prime Minister and E Jay Saunders, TCI Deputy Premier in highlighting the disparity between European countries and smaller nations in regard to tax blacklists.

In September at the UN General Assembly Davis said, “When we look at the countries that are flagged as high risk and blacklisted several startling commonalities emerge. Why are all the countries targeted small and vulnerable?”

A month later both The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos were listed on the EUs blacklist of non-compliant tax jurisdictions along with several others.”

In the aftermath of the Turks and Caicos, addition to the list in early October Oxfam International, a British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty, said this: “The current list makes the EU a hypocrite as major tax havens in Europe like Malta and Luxembourg escape the list while countries outside Europe like Eswatini and Botswana risk being blacklisted.”

An opinion piece published in the Guardian pointed out the disparity

“In the global fight against corruption, Caribbean nations like Trinidad and Tobago are blacklisted in a move that is gravely discriminatory— Pierre Moscovici, economic affairs commissioner, said ‘No one must get a free pass.’  Not one European country was listed; they all got a free pass.”

The Corporate Tax Haven Index which ranks jurisdictions ‘most complicit in helping multinational corporations avoid or underpay corporate income tax” lists 70 jurisdictions on its 2021 list. The European Union has a link to the list listed on their website and the Joint Research Centre at the European Commission has audited the list to judge its accuracy.  It said

“In general, the CTHI is found to be robust”’ Despite the seal of approval not one of the single most prolific tax haven jurisdictions on the CTHI is listed in the EU’s tax blacklist.  In fact two of the so-called most prolific are EU countries. The list includes

1. The British Virgin Islands
2. The Cayman Islands
3. Bermuda
4. The Netherlands
5. Switzerland
6. Luxembourg
7. Hong Kong
8. Jersey
9. Singapore
10. The United Arab Emirates

On the complete list of 70 jurisdictions described as ‘most complicit’ 28 EU countries were listed, that is to say, all of them.

In 2020, CARICOM asked the EU to desist from what it describes as “the ongoing unilateral, arbitrary and non-transparent blacklisting strategy employed by the European Union (EU) against CARICOM Member States.”

CARICOM maintained that the practice causes significant reputational risk and discourages investment.

Still the practice has continued.