Topic: european union

The PACT government is postponing plans that were put in place by the previous Progressives administration to open new overseas offices in the US, Europe and Asia and will retrain the staff newly hired for those offices to take on different roles.

The European Union on Wednesday threatened to take tougher measures to curb the export of COVID-19 vaccines, escalating an ongoing row with Britain and the United States over their restrictive handling of vaccine deliveries to the 27-nation bloc.

British and European Union negotiators made a last-ditch effort on Monday to bridge stubborn differences standing in the way of a post-Brexit trade deal.

The EU on Tuesday demanded "substantive" movement from Britain on fisheries, dispute settlement and guarantees of fair competition in their post-Brexit trade talks, which Germany said were at a "critical stage".

The European Union and Britain both said a post-Brexit deal was still some way off and differences persisted on Monday over putting in place their earlier divorce deal as they began a decisive week of talks in Brussels.

The number of British entrepreneurs looking to "buy" citizenship from countries offering visa-free access to the European Union has risen sharply, investment migration firms say, as prospects of a post-Brexit trade deal between Britain and the bloc darken.

Premier Alden McLaughlin has said the European Union’s blacklisting of the Cayman Islands remains “a source of major worry and concern” especially with the economy now heavily reliant on the Financial Services industry.

Opposition lawmakers expressed concern over reports that European Union ambassadors have recommended the Cayman Islands be blacklisted as a non-cooperative tax jurisdiction.

Cayman Finance supports government’s intention to introduce a public register of beneficial ownership, when such registers become the norm under international standards.

The Cayman Islands will make the true owners of companies incorporated in the islands public as soon as European Union countries establish their own public registers. Corresponding legislation is expected to be introduced in 2022.

Brexit hard-liner Boris Johnson, one of Britain’s most famous and divisive politicians, won the race to lead the governing Conservative Party on Tuesday, and will become the next prime minister on Wednesday.

The European Union has removed the Caribbean island of Dominica from its list of uncooperative jurisdictions in tax matters.

The European Union on Friday removed Bermuda, Aruba and Barbados from its list of uncooperative jurisdictions in tax matters.

In just under a week’s time voters from across the whole of the European Union will go to the polls to elect a new European Parliament.

Like President Trump and ultranationalists elsewhere, Salvini promises to put ‘Italians first’. And he marshals local resentment towards the policies of the European Union, railing against its cosmopolitan bureaucrats and what he calls rapacious bankers.

European Union finance ministers are set to remove Bermuda, Barbados and the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba from its tax blacklist on Friday, according to an unnamed EU official cited by Reuters and Bloomberg News.

A few days ago, the British government published the text of the CARIFORUM-UK Economic Partnership Agreement (UK EPA) that will govern trade in goods and services with the Caribbean, assuming Britain leaves the European Union sometime later this year.

Cayman’s exclusion from the latest European Union tax blacklist gives little cause for celebration, coming as it does with significant strings attached.

Britain’s Parliament delivered a crushing defeat to Prime Minister Theresa May’s European Union divorce deal Tuesday, plunging the Brexit process into chaos just 17 days before the U.K. is due to leave the bloc.

The European Union has not added the Cayman Islands to an expanded EU tax blacklist, but the council of EU finance ministers said Cayman will have to amend its legislation by the end of this year.

European Union governments are set to block the European Commission’s draft dirty money blacklist after all 28 EU member states objected to the way countries were selected for their alleged anti-money laundering deficiencies.

Government has published a guidance booklet to help companies comply with the territory’s economic substance legislation, which was passed by legislators last year in an attempt to avoid European Union tax blacklisting.

The European Union says that the current agreement with the U.K. remains the “best and only way” to ensure an orderly Brexit, after British Prime Minister Theresa May vowed to try to overhaul the deal.

British lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s divorce deal with the European Union, plunging the Brexit process into chaos.

Cayman politicians are meeting with officials in Brussels this week regarding Cayman’s future status in terms of how its tax laws are seen by the European Union.

The year 2018 came to a close just like the previous year ended: with Cayman attempting to stave off a blacklisting by the European Union.

The difficulty of attempting to deal with the EU and the OECD in relation to their ridiculously entitled ”harmful” tax practices initiative, whether through the introduction of economic substance legislation or howsoever, is well illustrated today by that paragon of tax avoidance techniques The Netherlands which, when I last looked, was a member of the EU, now introducing its independent “black list” including the Cayman Islands.

On a per-minute basis, this week’s sitting of the Legislative Assembly could be the most impactful gathering of lawmakers in Cayman Islands history. For better or worse.

Government pushed through new economic substance rules and other bills during a marathon Legislative Assembly session on Monday in a bid to avoid a European Union tax blacklisting.

We draw no comfort from the ministry’s claims that the bills have been subjected to in-depth consultation with Cayman’s financial services industry, local regulators, the EU and OECD. Assuming those discussions took place, they took place behind closed doors – out of sight, and earshot, from either Cayman’s public or stakeholders who were not selected by the government for consultation.

British Prime Minister Theresa May survived a brush with political mortality Wednesday, winning a no-confidence vote by Conservative lawmakers that would have ended her leadership of party and country.

The Legislative Assembly is set to reconvene on Monday to pass three separate bills caused by the threat of a European Union tax blacklisting and global regulatory pressure.

Eric Bush, the Cayman Islands government representative in London, plans to leave the foreign post and return home this summer.

Government has released draft legislation that will have far-reaching consequences for parts of the offshore finance industry in the Cayman Islands.

Beneficial ownership, tax transparency and disaster management dominated the second and last day of the Joint Ministerial Council meeting between overseas territories officials and the U.K. government in London.

After months of hesitation, stop-and-start negotiations and resignations, Britain and the European Union on Sunday finally sealed an agreement governing the U.K.’s departure from the bloc next year.

Citizenship by investment and residency by investment schemes are the latest targets of regulators and advocacy groups, as three reports by Transparency International, the OECD and the Green Party in the European Parliament all highlighted abuses of the programs in both Europe and the Caribbean.

Leaders from the European Union and Britain shrugged off a weekend negotiating debacle and previous deadlines Wednesday, giving themselves several more weeks to clinch a friendly divorce deal ahead of their separation.

The reality is that international investing and commerce, which constitute the vast majority of what takes place in the financial sector in these islands, do not require a huge physical presence.

Minister of Financial Services Tara Rivers will meet EU officials in Brussels this week to continue government’s discussions about the EU’s list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions.

Silence may be safe, it may be convenient, but it is not an acceptable strategy in a free and democratic society.

Today's editorial cartoon

Using a heavy hand and curiously distorted notions of what a free marketplace should look like, EU regulators are endangering a symbiotic system that enhances competition and magnifies consumer choice.

The EU has drawn up a list based on tax information exchange and fair tax criteria that non-EU countries have to meet to avoid potential punitive measures.

Stocks in the U.S. and Europe are sinking Tuesday following political turmoil in Italy, which stoked fears of instability in the euro bloc.

Minister for Financial Services Tara Rivers will travel to Brussels to discuss Cayman’s tax system with EU officials after Cayman last year narrowly avoided being included on a blacklist of countries deemed uncooperative in tax matters.

The introduction of Cayman’s Data Protection Law will come in effect in January 2019, but local businesses and organizations need to be aware of a corresponding legislation coming out of Europe that is likely to impact them as early as this month.

The Council of the European Union announced Tuesday that the EU has amended its blacklist of jurisdictions that it deems uncooperative in tax matters, removing eight jurisdictions from that list.

The “real victims” of divorce are often the children. We hope that doesn’t hold true for “colonial children,” including the Cayman Islands, in the context of England’s protracted separation from the European Union, known commonly as “Brexit.”

Laura Panades, course leader at the Truman Bodden Law School in Cayman, has published a book chapter on public-private partnerships as a vehicle to improve social standards.

The Cayman Islands was not included on a list of 17 countries that the European Union deemed uncooperative in tax matters. However, when the list was released on Dec. 5, Cayman found itself on a so-called graylist of 47 countries and jurisdictions that have made written commitments to meet the EU criteria applied to the process of singling out countries for their lack of tax transparency and “tax fairness.”

There’s good news, there’s bad news and then there’s … gray news. Developments out of Brussels this week fell in the last category, as the European Union placed the Cayman Islands on a so-called “graylist” — meaning our government has made certain commitments in writing to address EU criteria on tax transparency and “fairness."

Premier Alden McLaughlin took the opportunity during a meeting with British Prime Minister Theresa May at London’s 10 Downing Street to plead his case for keeping the Cayman Islands off a blacklist of countries engaged in questionable financial practices.

Cayman’s top officials are not passively awaiting European leaders’ upcoming vote on a proposed financial services “blacklist.” To the contrary, they appear to be fighting to the finish, armed with indisputable truths about Cayman’s economy and how it benefits global commerce.

A Cayman delegation left for London Friday with little more than a week left to appeal to U.K. and European officials against its potential inclusion on a financial services “blacklist” being promulgated by the European Union group of finance ministers [ECOFIN].

Premier Alden McLaughlin, Minister Roy McTaggart and Mr. Saunders deserve to be commended for standing up for Cayman’s financial services industry

On Dec. 5, 2017 – just three weeks hence – our sovereign, the United Kingdom, will vote on whether to accede to the calumny of the European Union and blacklist in financial markets several of its own territories, most notably the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, the Channel Islands and the British Virgin Islands.

There comes a point in every failed negotiation where the words used should indicate that there is no possibility whatsoever of reaching an agreement with the negotiating party. In the present case, this is because the negotiating party, here the European Union, has no intention whatsoever of doing so.

Today's editorial cartoon

The Cayman Islands is one of 92 jurisdictions that expect to learn by December if they will be placed on a European Union “blacklist” being drawn up as part of a tax avoidance crackdown.

Make no mistake about it. The EU and its regulatory henchmen (read “OECD”) are not trying to export their failed economic policies. They are trying to export their failed left-leaning social policies.

The group of parliamentarians and peers that promotes the interest of the Cayman Islands in Britain and internationally reconvened Tuesday night for the first time since the U.K. general election.

Leaders from 10 British Overseas Territories, including Cayman, met with U.K. ministers in London on Wednesday to discuss Brexit negotiations. All attendees in Wednesday’s meeting were briefed on developments and preparations for talks with the EU.

If someone wants to make Cayman a power broker in international negotiations, we will gladly step up to the role. In the meantime, do not begrudge us our country’s small but vital chance to make our voices heard.

Colliers Wilderness Reserve is a National Trust for the Cayman Islands protected area in the district of East End. The European Union’s BEST program allowed for the establishment of the reserve.

Coming out of Switzerland is a developing story that’s not exactly “Man bites dog,” but certainly constitutes “Man bites back,” and is particularly instructive to the people of the Cayman Islands.

The European Data Protection Supervisor has concluded that proposed amendments to the EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive and efforts to widely share beneficial ownership data are not proportionate in their current form.

The U.K. government must do its best to back financial services industries in its overseas territories, both before and after Brexit talks with the European Union, Premier Alden McLaughlin said Tuesday.

European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici at a meeting with Cayman Islands Financial Services Minister Wayne Panton in Brussels last week said he recognized the strength of Cayman’s tax transparency regime and its participation in the OECD’s base erosion and profit shifting inclusive framework, according to a press release from the Cayman Islands Government.

Representatives from the European Union-funded COSME initiative will travel to the Cayman Islands next week to introduce local business owners and entrepreneurs to the ‘Carib Connect’ website.

The U.K. vote to leave the European Union has caused widespread delays to fund launches across Europe, but the outlook for the private equity industry overall remains optimistic, according to research released by offshore law firm Mourant Ozannes.

LONDON (AP) — Britain's High Court brought government plans for leaving the European Union screeching to a halt Thursday, ruling that the prime minister can't trigger the U.K.'s exit from the bloc without parliamentary approval.