Brussels, 14 February 2023 (MIA) - The European Union removed North Macedonia from its tax haven blacklist.

The EU also removed three other countries from the tax haven list - Barbados, Jamaica and Uruguay.

Brussels, according to Euronews, assessed that North Macedonia, Barbados, Jamaica and Uruguay have completed the necessary steps and had fulfilled their commitments to be removed from the blacklist.

Costa Rica, the Marshall Islands and the British Virgin Islands were added to the list along with Russia, bringing the total number of tax jurisdictions to fall afoul of the EU to 16 in total.

First adopted in 2017, the EU's tax list is updated twice a year.

Brussels insists the public catalogue is not meant to "name and shame" other countries, but to "encourage positive change" in tax practices through cooperation and continued dialogue.

Countries around the world are assessed against three key criteria: tax transparency, fair taxation, and measures to tackle base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) by multinationals.

Those who don't comply with the criteria are asked to make changes to their legislation.
If they refuse to do so, the EU can add them to the list, which doesn't use the politically charged term of "tax haven" and instead speaks of "non-cooperative jurisdictions."

The labelling doesn't entail any reprisals or sanctions beyond the reputational damage.