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April 25
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EU finance ministers will on Tuesday discuss setting up a blacklist of worldwide tax havens, EU officials said, after leaked documents from an offshore law firm revealed investments by wealthy individuals and institutions around the globe, Reuters reported.

The subject’s inclusion on the monthly meeting’s agenda came after the weekend publication of media reports citing the so-called “Paradise Papers”, a trove of leaked financial documents mostly from Appleby, a prominent offshore law firm.

EU countries had planned for months to reach an agreement on a blacklist for tax havens by the end of this year. The new revelations prompted the discussion to be brought forward, EU officials said, but no final decision was expected on Tuesday.

The EU has discussed several measures to crack down on tax avoidance in the past, including in the wake of the “Panama Papers”, a release by the ICIJ last year which chronicled a shadowy world of offshore holdings and hidden wealth.

Measures previously discussed include an EU-wide list of tax havens meant to discourage the rerouting of profits made in the EU to tax-free or low-tax countries, like Panama or Bermuda.

At the moment, each EU country has its own list of jurisdictions that are seen as less cooperative on tax matters. Criteria to define a tax haven vary greatly among EU states and some of them include no jurisdictions in their national blacklists.

An EU blacklist is believed to carry more weight. Jurisdictions included in the list could be subject to sanctions if they did not cooperate.

There are no details yet of the type of sanctions to be discussed, although being on the blacklist in itself could discourage individuals and companies from putting money in those jurisdictions.

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