David Casa Calls on the Commission to Blacklist the UAE 

David Casa has called on the European Commission to include the United Arab Emirates in the EU’s list of third countries with weak Anti-Money Laundering regimes. This list is reviewed periodically and the Commission’s new proposal is due to be published in the coming days. 

European Parliament Quaestor David Casa stated: 

“The Commission is due to publish a delegated act with a new AML blacklist next week. The UAE should be on that list. The Parliament has the duty to scrutinize the list”.

In a letter to European Commission Executive Vice President Dombrovskis David Casa stated: 

“Investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated in order to stop her from exposing high-level corruption and money laundering. 

This very same corruption and money laundering was made possible through a Dubai-registered company and a Dubai-based bank. 

Secretive jurisdictions play an indispensable role in enabling financial crime. Often this takes place without the jurisdiction’s knowledge. This is unacceptable. However, it is even more unacceptable when the authorities in such jurisdictions are made aware of the gravity of the crimes they have facilitated and refuse to cooperate with European investigations. 

The authorities in the United Arab Emirates are very well aware of the gravity of this case. They are well aware that their jurisdiction was used to facilitate crimes over which a European journalist was murdered. They are well aware that by refusing to cooperate with the investigation they are affording impunity for the corruption that is at the very centre of the motive for Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder. 

The UAE is fully aware of these facts because I met personally with high-level officials. I also sent considerable correspondence to the UAE Attorney General, the FIU as well as the relevant bank. Additionally, this case has now received widespread global media coverage.

That the UAE has so far refused to cooperate with investigations was revealed during the public inquiry into the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia.

This is intolerable. 

The UAE has now also been named in the Luanda Leaks as the jurisdiction that was key in the money laundering scheme exposed by investigative journalists. 

In view of these circumstances, as the EPP spokesperson on Anti-Money Laundering within the Committee of Economic and Monetary Affairs, it is my contention that the UAE must be included in the European Union’s blacklist”.