EU officials turn down meeting over finance ‘blacklist’

Friday 17 November 2017

Jersey’s External Relations Minister has said the EU has rejected the chance to meet local officials over whether the island will be included on a finance centre 'blacklist'.

Speaking in the States this week, Senator Sir Philip Bailhache said the island had been told it was on a list of 92 jurisdictions which could be included, but beyond that, had had very little feedback.

He added that they had asked for various pieces of information, which Jersey duly answered. But when the island requested a meeting, the Code group declined.

Senator Bailhache was answering questions following the publication of the so-called Paradise papers  – a series of reports based on data obtained from offshore law firm Appleby – that thrust Jersey into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

The publication of those papers, some allege, was deliberately timed to coincide with a key meeting of EU financial ministers due to draw up their ‘blacklist’.

In Tuesday’s States Assembly, the Minister for External Relations, Senator Sir Philip Bailhache, was probed over the matter.

Pictured: Minister for External Relations, Senator Sir Philip Bailhache, said that the European Code of Conduct Group had declined to meet with Jersey representatives.

Asked by Deputy Mike Higgins over what kind of feedback the island had received so far on its status, the Minister responded: “I think it’s fair to say that the government has had very little feedback from the code of conduct group in relation to this entire process. The code of conduct group has issued a series of questions, which have been answered very fully by our officials about the request to have a direct face to face contact with the code of conduct group and the interaction in that sense has been denied so it is not possible to say with any certainty.”

The island is due to fund out next month, if it has been included. 

The UK Minister for the Department for Exiting the EU, Robin Walker MP, told Express last week that he had every intention of robustly defending Crown Dependencies’ interests on the European stage, to ensure that those jurisdictions do not lose out throughout the Brexit divorce process.

.@WalkerWorcester speaks after a constructive #BICJERSEY meeting and reaffirms our commitment to engaging with @BICSecretariat on EU exit pic.twitter.com/ksdfx4Z23f

— Exiting the EU Dept (@DExEUgov) November 10, 2017

He congratulated Jersey on its “strong record” of meeting international standards, and said that the UK government would ensure that their “concerns around the process are heard at the European level.”