Tax havens: EU removes Anguilla, Dominica and Seychelles from its blacklist
On October 5, 2021, the European Union removed Anguilla, Dominica and the Seychelles from its blacklist of tax havens.
Here, a general view of a Seychelles beach.
REUTERS - Ahmed Jadallah
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
In the midst of the Pandora Papers affair, the European Union is removing three countries from its blacklist of tax havens.
According to this list, Anguilla, Dominica and the Seychelles no longer practice escape.
A decision that causes the consternation of the NGO Oxfam.
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The decision was taken by EU finance ministers meeting this Tuesday in Luxembourg, in the absence of Dutch Minister Wopke Hoekstra, himself cited in the
Pandora Papers
for having invested in a company based in the British Virgin Islands.
The EU blacklist now includes nine territories deemed uncooperative in the fight against tax evasion: American Samoa, Fiji, Guam, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.
Anguilla, Dominica and the Seychelles were able to exit as they committed to reforms to meet the EU's demands for transparency.
This European instrument, supposed to fight against the tax evasion of multinationals and large fortunes, was created in December 2017 after several scandals, including the Panama Papers and LuxLeaks.
Sanctions against "blacklisted" countries can include freezing EU funds.
"Obsolete" criteria
The decision in Brussels, two days after the new financial scandal, causes the consternation of the NGO Oxfam, which regrets that countries mentioned in the Pandora Papers are still not on the blacklist. Quentin Parrinello, head of tax justice advocacy at Oxfam France, believes that the EU should instead reform the criteria on its list in order to target real tax havens, because they are "
obsolete
" and its blacklist is "
partial and partial.
".
The list is credible if the criteria for judging a tax haven are credible [...] We see that some people change country and go to other tax havens.
Countries which are somewhere "too big to blacklist", which are too big, and whose geopolitical weight makes the European Union hesitate twice before putting them on the blacklist [...] Obviously we must sweep away in front of his door.
If the European Union is already starting to attack its own tax havens, it will also be much more credible abroad.
Quentin Parrinello, Tax Justice Advocacy Manager at Oxfam France
Agnieszka Kumor
The Pandora Papers survey, released on Sunday, to which around 600 international journalists contributed, established links between offshore assets and 336 prominent leaders and politicians, who have created nearly 1,000 companies, more than two-thirds of which are in the British Virgin Islands.
Financial arrangements in the Seychelles have also been pinned down.
► Also to listen: "Pandora Papers": "The problem of tax havens is broader" [International guest]
(With
AFP
)
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