Others which have been taken off the list following a meeting of the economic and financial affairs council, are Grenada, the Republic of Korea, Macao SAR, Mongolia, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. All eight countries have been moved to a separate category of jurisdictions subject to close monitoring.

The council agreed that a delisting was justified in the light of an expert assessment of the commitments made by these jurisdictions to address deficiencies identified by the EU. In each case, the commitments were backed by letters signed at a high political level.

Vladislav Goranov, minister for finance of Bulgaria, which currently holds the Council presidency, said: ‘Our listing process is already proving its worth. Jurisdictions around the world have worked hard to make commitments to reform their tax policies. Our aim is to promote good tax governance globally.’

The decision leaves nine jurisdictions on the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions out of the 17 originally announced in December 2017. These are American Samoa, Bahrain, Guam, Marshall Islands, Namibia, Palau, Saint Lucia, Samoa and Trinidad and Tobago. The list also carries recommendations on steps to take to be de-listed.

The EU's list is intended to promote good governance in taxation worldwide, and was prepared during 2017 in parallel with the OECD global forum on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes.

Whereas the list is to be revised at least once a year, the working group responsible for preparing it can recommend an update at any time.

Jurisdictions that remain on the list are strongly encouraged to make the changes requested of them, with the EU claiming their tax legislation, policies and administrative practices result or may result in a loss of revenues for member states. Pending such changes, the EU and the member states could apply defensive measures.

The update to the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes is here.

Report by Pat Sweet