Seychelles denounces EU Council's decision to add it on Annex I of its list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes
October 18, 2023
The European Union (EU) Council has added Seychelles to Annex I of the EU list of non-cooperative
jurisdictions for tax purposes (the so called EU blacklist), in view of Seychelles’ rating of Partially Compliant
by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (the Global Forum) for
Exchange of Information on Request.
The Minister for Finance, National Planning and Trade, Mr. Naadir Hassan denounced the Council’s
determination and stated “the addition of the Seychelles on the EU blacklist on the basis of rigid application of
criterion set purely for non-member states goes contrary to the purported principles of the list being promotion
of good tax governance standards.”
“The EU have had a complete disregard for the specifics relating to Seychelles’ rating, despite extensive
engagement with them, illustrating the progress made and evidencing the reforms undertaken and their
effectiveness in practice. Their automatic listing of the country despite this evidence of political commitment to
the standards on tax transparency illustrate a careless approach to the harm such listing entails. It is inexcusable
that historic deficiencies which have been fully remedied should continue to have such significant impact on the
jurisdiction. We call on the EU to review their listing procedures to provide greater transparency,
consistency and equitable treatment, such that any country, small, big or well-connected is justly
considered. The fact that the list consists predominantly of small island developing states highlights the
injustice of the application of their listing criteria.”
For more read the full press release