The European Union is removing the UAE, Tunisia and six other countries from the list of tax havens
The European Union has written off eight countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia, from its black list of tax havens after they made commitments, a move quickly criticized by human rights organizations demanding greater transparency.
The European Union has raised the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia, Mongolia, Macao, Grenada, Barbados and South Korea from the European finance ministers' list, a step that comes a few weeks after the list of 17 non-EU countries is unveiled.
The decision has drawn criticism from activists including Oxfam, which says the EU's commitment to tax evasion after last year's "Panama paper scandal" has now receded.
A statement by the European Union (EU) said eight countries from the list of non-cooperative countries had been taxed following "commitments made at high political levels to remove EU concerns."
The 28 EU finance ministers refuse to disclose the commitments made by the countries listed earlier in the list.
"We can not publish the letters (in which countries promised to reform their tax legislation)," Bulgarian Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov, whose country holds the EU's six-month rotating presidency, said: "What we propose is to contact these countries to see if they want to spread their commitments."
"The European pressure came first," French Finance Minister Bruno Lemerre said on Twitter.
The G8 will now be on a "gray list" of countries that have made unspecified pledges to the EU on tax reform.
The black list now includes nine states or entities: American Samoa, Bahrain, Guam, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Palau, Saint Lucia, Samoa and the Trinidad and Tobago Islands.
The ministers agreed that "delisting on the list is justified in the light of experts' assessment of the commitments made by these countries to address the shortcomings identified by the European Union."
"In each case, the commitments were backed by letters signed at a high political level," they said.
- Weakness of credibility -
The EU list came a year after the scandal of "Panama papers", a huge amount of data from a prominent law firm in Panama showing how the world's rich are hiding their money.
The European Union has essentially scrutinized 92 countries to put them on the list, which is expected to be updated constantly.
Oxfam said Tuesday's decision would weaken EU efforts to crack down on tax evasion.
"The European Union is accelerating the removal of countries from its blacklist, but it is not yet clear what it has already committed to improving, which would further weaken the process," Oxfam adviser Uror Chardonnay said of the EU policy on taxation and inequality.
"It is no secret that the tax havens are still at the heart of the European Union, with four European countries not in line with EU standards," Chardonnay said.
"European Union governments must deal with tax havens within the EU with the same urgency they are pushing other countries to adopt tax reforms decided by an exclusive club of rich countries," she said.
EU economic affairs commissioner Pierre Moskowitzi last week accused several European countries, including Ireland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Malta and Cyprus, of being "tax black holes" and promised to pressure them to change tactics.
Moscovici also urged ministers to announce any commitments by states to remove them from the list.
The European Parliament's Green Party MP Eva Jolie, a strong advocate of a fair tax policy, adopted Muskovissi's position and condemned the decision to withdraw states from the black list.
"Today's decision weakens the credibility of this list more," she said.
Panama and Tunisia hailed their blacklisting.
"Our commitment is to ensure the highest standards of financial transparency," said Juan Carlos Varela, President of Panama.
In Tunisia, the country's secretary of state for foreign trade, Hisham Ben Ahmed, said his country was "not a place among tax havens," adding that talks were underway to get out of the gray list of countries that have made pledges in the tax field and will be monitored.
"Thanks to the important work of the dialogue between Tunisia and the European Union and the intensive efforts of the government, we have managed to overcome the misunderstanding, this stumbling block in our relationship and this is very good," he said.
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