After much anticipation, the European Union has published a list of 17 jurisdictions that it claims are failing to help it fight tax evasion to an adequate degree.

The European Council, an organ of the EU, has published a blacklist of jurisdictions that it says are not co-operating in its hunt for tax evaders. Centres as significant as South Korea and the United Arab Emirates are included, as are places such as Panama, which was the source of a massive leak of clients' data last year.

Toomas Tõniste, the minister for finance of Estonia, which currently holds the presidency of the council, said: “This initiative is already proving its value, as numerous countries have worked to meet the deadline for making commitments on the basis of our criteria, but it is also important that we closely monitor the implementation of commitments made by our partners around the world. 

“This is not just a one-off process. We will regularly review and update the list in the years to come. Our aim is to ensure that good tax governance becomes the new norm.”

The European Council said that countries on the list “failed to take meaningful action to address deficiencies identified and did not engage in a meaningful dialogue on the basis of the EU’s criteria.”

The 17 jurisdictions it deems to be 'non-co-operative' in terms of tax are:

• American Samoa; 
• Bahrain; 
• Barbados;
• Grenada; 
• Guam; 
• South Korea; 
• Macao; 
• the Marshall Islands; 
• Mongolia; 
• Namibia; 
• Palau; 
• Panama; 
• Saint Lucia; 
• Samoa; 
• Trinidad and Tobago; 
• Tunisia; and
• the United Arab Emirates.

The European Council said that it had sent letters to all the jurisdictions on the list in October. These letters, where necessary, asked for political commitments to addressing all the deficiencies they identified within a certain time frame.

Noting that some Caribbean jurisdictions on the list have been hit by hurricane damage, the EU is placing the process of dealing with their shortcomings on hold temporarily. It added: “They will be asked to address the concerns identified as soon as the situation improves, with a view to resolving them by the end of 2018. By February 2018, they will be contacted to prepare the next steps.”