The Government says it notes, “with disappointment”, the European Parliament’s objection, today, to the entry into force of the European Commission’s decision to remove certain jurisdictions, including Gibraltar, from the EU’s list of ‘high-risk’ third-countries with strategic deficiencies as regards anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (“AML/CFT”).
Albert Isola, Minister for Financial Services, signed an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom to improve international tax compliance last Thursday.
The signing took place during the Minister's attendance at the annual meeting of the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, held this year in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Following the recommendations made by the European Commission to the Gibraltar Government this month, regarding tobacco smuggling, the Chief Minister has today extended the powers of Customs and the Royal Gibraltar Police to stop and search individuals and direct then out of new ‘Special Zones’ extending from the Frontier to the Sundial Roundabout on Winston Churchill Avenue.
The GSD have said that recent comments by Kevin Coyne, Unite’s national officer for Gibraltar that a successful economy requires a highly skilled, highly motivated, professional workforce brings into sharp focus what the Opposition has been advocating.