Nov 05 - European Commission Passes ‘Clean Bill of Health’ for Gibraltar on EU Matters
Gibraltar has been given a ‘clean bill of health’ on a number of EU matters that were put to the European Commission recently. Gibraltar MEP Sir Graham Watson has told the Government that there are no infringement proceedings against the United Kingdom concerning the non-transposition of Directives on financial services in Gibraltar. The Commission added that there are no Directives on exchange of information or mutual assistance on tax matters outstanding for transposition in Gibraltar.
Commissioner Barnier insisted that there are no Directives to combat money laundering outstanding for transposition in Gibraltar and there were no Directives, the transposition of which has passed, which have not been transposed in Gibraltar. He also found that there are no well-founded complaints against Gibraltar for an alleged failure to provide or exchange information or to collaborate on tax, financial services or money laundering matters.
The Government is delighted by the news and has claimed that it shows ‘Gibraltar is a well regulated EU-compliant jurisdiction and it demonstrates that our finance centre has been at the receiving end of inaccurate and unjustified criticism by the Government of Spain.’
