MEP David Casa has 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 was speaking during a plenary debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, in light of recent developments which revealed that the UAE has refused to cooperate in investigations related to 17 Black.

In November, when it became clear that the secret company 17 Black was at the centre of the motive behind the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia, Mr Casa insisted the UAE should cooperate with Maltese and European law enforcement. 

He has now called on the European Commission not to allow this situation to persist. He has called for severe consequences for non-cooperative jurisdictions that should act as a deterrent.

“The refusal of the UAE to transfer information, means that justice cannot take its course. It means that the crimes over which a European journalist was murdered, might go unpunished. This is intolerable,” Mr Casa said.

Casa said that in view of the developments related to Ms Caruana Galizia’s assassination, the transfer of information from the UAE was even more crucial due to criminal activities which she was in the process of uncovering when she was killed, including those involving former OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri and former minister Konrad Mizzi.

Mr Casa is the EPP group spokesman on anti-money laundering within the Committee for Economic and Monetary Affairs. He is also part of the European Parliament’s delegation to the Arab Peninsula that includes the UAE.