EU states have rejected a European Commission proposal to blacklist
Saudi Arabia and four US territories on money laundering and terrorist
financing grounds.
All 28 member countries' ambassadors blocked the move at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday (6 March) in an unusual step, an EU source said.
The decision is to be formalised by EU justice and home affairs ministers on Thursday, forcing the commission to submit a new proposal later down the line.
The commission had called to add Saudi Arabia and the US territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, as well as Panama, Libya, and some other countries, to what is known in the EU capital as the "dirty-money list".
But EU states complained about due process, saying the proposed new register had exceedingly loose legal criteria and that they had not been adequately consulted on its contents, the EU source noted.
"It was not about leaving off this or that country. It was disagreement on points of principle," the source said.
Note EU-Digest: What an amateurish performance by the EU Commission. Obviously Saudi Arabia and the other countriesm the Commission had called for to be put on the black list should all be on it, and would have been accepted by the member states, if only the proposed new register had a better legal criteria, and if member states had been closely consulted prior to putting out this blacklist.
Read more: Saudi Arabia evades EU dirty-money list for now
All 28 member countries' ambassadors blocked the move at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday (6 March) in an unusual step, an EU source said.
The decision is to be formalised by EU justice and home affairs ministers on Thursday, forcing the commission to submit a new proposal later down the line.
The commission had called to add Saudi Arabia and the US territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, as well as Panama, Libya, and some other countries, to what is known in the EU capital as the "dirty-money list".
But EU states complained about due process, saying the proposed new register had exceedingly loose legal criteria and that they had not been adequately consulted on its contents, the EU source noted.
"It was not about leaving off this or that country. It was disagreement on points of principle," the source said.
Note EU-Digest: What an amateurish performance by the EU Commission. Obviously Saudi Arabia and the other countriesm the Commission had called for to be put on the black list should all be on it, and would have been accepted by the member states, if only the proposed new register had a better legal criteria, and if member states had been closely consulted prior to putting out this blacklist.
Read more: Saudi Arabia evades EU dirty-money list for now
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