European Union nations want a strict common blacklist of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions that have been at the heart of the recent offshore accounts scandal in an effort to close loopholes and crack down on the use of tax havens.
The EU Commission proposed setting up such a list early this month and the 28 EU finance ministers gave their political endorsement of it at a meeting today.
EU Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis says "we can get this listing system up and running very soon." The EU Commission says nations on the tax blacklist should also be sanctioned if appeals for change go unheeded.
So far, the EU and some of its member nations have had several different tax haven lists, which have mostly been ineffective.
