The 27 EU member states will add the Cayman Islands, British overseas territory, to their blacklist of tax havens, a European source told AFP on Thursday, two weeks after Brexit. The 27 ambassadors of the countries of the Union made the decision Wednesday to “ blacklist ” this territory located in the Caribbean, which must be confirmed by the EU finance ministers, during their meeting in Brussels next Tuesday.
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" Other countries or jurisdictions should also be placed on the EU blacklist ," said the source, but did not give their names. " Some EU member states have expressed reservations about the decision to blacklist these countries, " she added. However, it is necessary to have a consensus of all EU countries to put them on the black list, she underlined. But the resistance could be unlocked by Tuesday's meeting.
The EU blacklist currently includes eight countries or jurisdictions: American Samoa, Fiji, Guam, Oman, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States Virgin Islands and Vanuatu. The Cayman Islands are the first British overseas territory to be included in the EU blacklist. " The main reason is that they have not implemented the necessary reforms ", promised to the Union before the end of 2019, according to the same European source. The Cayman Islands are in particular accused of having legislation facilitating the establishment of offshore structures.
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The EU finance ministers had drawn up their blacklist for the first time in December 2017 following several scandals, including the Panama Papers and LuxLeaks, to better fight the tax evasion of multinationals and large fortunes. The sanctions against the “ blacklisted ” countries are quite limited: it is simply planned to freeze the European funds that they could have received. The blacklist initially pinned 17 countries but then narrowed considerably, due to promises made by several bad students to the European Union to change their tax laws.
