MEP 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.

The list is reviewed periodically and the Commission’s new proposal is due to be published in the coming days. 

On Thursday, Mr Casa called on the EU to be more forceful with jurisdictions, such as the United Arab Emirates, to ensure they cooperate on money-laundering investigations.

He said on Friday the UAE should be on the delegated act with a new AML blacklist due to be published by the commission next week. Parliament had the duty to scrutinise the list.

In a letter to European Commission executive vice-president Dombrovskis (see attached document), Mr Casa said: “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.”

He said the authorities in the UAE were very well aware of the gravity of this case and 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 Ms Caruana Galizia’s murder.”

Mr Casa said he personally met with high-level officials from the UAE and sent considerable correspondence to the UAE Attorney General, the Financial Intelligence Unit as well as the relevant bank. Additionally, this case had 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.”

Mr Casa noted that the UAE had 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, Mr Casa said that as the EPP spokesperson on Anti-Money Laundering within the Committee of Economic and Monetary Affairs, it was his contention that the UAE must be included in the European Union’s blacklist.