Brussels includes Gibraltar on its black list of lax countries with money laundering and terrorist financing
BRUSSELS, 20 (EUROPE PRESS)
The European Commission has included Gibraltar on Tuesday in its list of countries with “high risk” of money laundering and terrorist financing, a classification that does not imply sanctions against those indicated but forces European banks to reinforce the controls of operations in the involving clients or entities from the countries on the list.
In addition to the British territory with which the European Union finalizes an agreement to establish bilateral relations after Brexit, community services have included the United Arab Emirates, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, and Tanzania on the blacklist. On the contrary, from the list Nicaragua, Pakistan and Zimbabwe.
Brussels periodically reviews the list and the changes it proposes will automatically enter into force after a month if the European Parliament or the Council do not rule against it during that time.
For its preparation, it takes into account the information provided by the Financial Action Group against Money Laundering (GAFI) on countries to which to apply “enhanced surveillance”, but the EU adds other countries based on its own criteria.
The European Commission says it is “closely involved” in monitoring the countries and territories registered on this list and offers them collaboration to reduce the problems of the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, with the aim of helping them comply FATF standards.
This collaboration, has defended the Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuiness, “will help the affected countries in their efforts and will protect the financial system of the European Union and the proper functioning of the Single Market”.
