The European Union agreed on a tax blacklist of 17 countries that could potentially face sanctions for failing to bring their standards in line with the bloc, as it seeks to further step up its fight against opaque practices that facilitate avoidance by multinationals and individuals.
The group of jurisdictions, which was rubber-stamped by EU finance ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, includes South Korea, Panama, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Barbados, Samoa, Grenada, Macau, the Marshall Islands, Palau and St. Lucia, according to an EU official.
The final list is the result of months of screening on dozens of countries and territories, and back-and-forths between the 28-country bloc and various jurisdictions around the world. It could still change depending on the ministers' political decision. Ministers decided that 17 countries will be blacklisted, while another 47 will be included in a separate gray list, to be monitored for their compliance with commitments undertaken.