European Commission reiterates Gibraltar ‘no longer a threat’ to EU financial system

The European Commission this week reiterated its view that Gibraltar “no longer poses a threat” to the EU’s financial system.

Maria Luís Albuquerque, the European Commissioner for Financial Stability, Financial Services and the Capital Markets Union, was responding on behalf of the Commission to a question from Italian MEP Fulvio Martusciello, a member of the Forza Italia party and part of the European People’s Party.

Last July, Mr Martusciello queried the Commission’s decision to remove Gibraltar from its list of high-risk jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies in frameworks to tackle money laundering and terrorism financing.

“Gibraltar has the second-highest GDP per capita in the world, even though it has no natural resources and is home to only 34 000 people,” the Italian MEP said in a written question.

“The sale of alcohol, tobacco and oil (goods that are subject to taxation in the EU), along with Gibraltar’s online gambling market (which accounts for 25 % of national GDP) and its policy of not taxing resident businesses for income generated abroad have resulted in the country boasting more than 14 000 active companies – one for every 2.4 inhabitants.”

“In the light of the above, and given both Gibraltar’s economic make-up and the fact that the aforementioned businesses are widely recognised at international level as being particularly exposed to the risk of money laundering and/or terrorist financing, what justification can the Commission give for a decision which poses a high risk to the integrity of the internal market?”

In a response published this week, Ms Albuquerque described the “significant progress” made by Gibraltar which led to its removal from the Financial Action Task Force grey list in February 2024.

“As FATF member, the Commission was closely involved in assessing Gibraltar’s progress against its FATF action plan,” she told the Italian MEP in a written response.

“Following the completion of Gibraltar’s action plan and considering that no additional concerns had been identified, Gibraltar was considered to no longer pose a threat to the Union’s financial system.”

Neither the European Parliament nor the European Council objected to the decision to remove Gibraltar from the EU list, which was formally updated on July 16 when it was published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

“The Commission will continue to closely monitor developments in Gibraltar's AML/CFT regime,” Ms Albuquerque said.

“A commitment to maintaining a level-playing field on anti-money laundering is also an important component of the future EU-UK Agreement on Gibraltar, on which a political agreement was reached on 11 June 20252.”