December 6 (SeeNews) - The European Commission said four countries of Southeastern Europe (SEE) have committed to addressing deficiencies in their tax systems in order to avoid getting listed as tax havens.
Bosnia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia have committed to improving transparency standards and applying the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) measures of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Commission said in a statement on Tuesday.
The EU member states agreed not to list jurisdictions if they committed to address the deficiencies that were found during the screening process. These commitments, related to the good governance criteria used in the listing process, had to be made at a high political level, and give a clear domestic timeline for implementing the changes.
The countries should meet the EU criteria by the end of 2018, or 2019 for developing countries without financial centres, to avoid being listed.
"Blacklisted jurisdictions must face consequences in the form of dissuasive sanctions, while those that have made commitments must follow up on them quickly and credibly. There must be no naivety: promises must be turned into actions," Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, Pierre Moscovici, said.
"No one must get a free pass."
The finance ministers of the euro area have listed 17 countries for failing to meet agreed tax good governance standards. In addition, 47 countries have committed to addressing deficiencies in their tax systems and to meet the required criteria, following contacts with the EU.