The European Commission added Saudi Arabia, Panama, Nigeria and other jurisdictions to a blacklist of nations that pose a threat because of lax controls on terrorism financing and money laundering, the EU executive said on Wednesday.
The move has triggered criticism from several EU states worried about their economic relations with the listed states, notably Saudi Arabia.
In spite of pressure to exclude Riyadh from the list, the commission decided to list the kingdom, confirming a Reuters report in January.
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The list now includes 23 jurisdictions; it previously comprised 16. The Commission also added Libya, Botswana, Ghana, Samoa, the Bahamas and the four U.S. territories of American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam.
The other listed states are Afghanistan, North Korea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and Yemen.
Bosnia Herzegovina, Guyana, Laos, Uganda and Vanuatu were removed.
Apart from reputational damage, inclusion on the list complicated financial relations with the EU.
The bloc’s banks would have to carry out additional checks on payments involving entities from listed jurisdictions.
The 28 EU states now have one month, which can be extended to two, to endorse the list. They could reject it by qualified majority.
EU justice commissioner Vera Jourova, who proposed the list, told a news conference she was confident states would not block the list. (NAN)