The Bahamas government said it is “disappointed” that the European Union (EU) is moving to name that country as a tax haven later this week.
Finance and Deputy Prime Minister, K. Peter Turnquest, said Nassau has learnt that the EU Code of Conduct Group (COCG) will be making a recommendation to the Council of the European Union this week to include The Bahamas on the EU List of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.
Particularly surprising news
“Throughout this process, The Bahamas has consistently been engaged with the OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) and the COCG on the EU listing criteria – including as late as last week. Therefore, this latest move is particularly surprising to us,” Turnquest said in a statement.
Last week, international media reports indicated that St. Lucia will join its Caribbean neighbors Barbados and Grenada in being removed from a list of tax havens drawn up by the EU.
The Reuters news agency said it had seen an EC document indicating that Bahrain, the Marshall Islands and St. Lucia will be removed from the list last week.
It said that the latest decision was taken by the EU Code of Conduct Group, which includes tax experts from the 28 member states.
Proposal to be endorsed March 13
The EU finance ministers are expected to endorse the proposal at their regular monthly meeting in Brussels on March 13.
Earlier this month, the CARICOM leaders who met in Haiti for the 29th inter-sessional summit, called on their finance ministers and central bank governors of the region to meet “expeditiously” to consider new proposals as regional governments continue to react to decisions by Europe in listing some countries as tax havens.
 is moving to name that country as a tax haven later this week.){kind=link}