OACPS Secretary-General condemns unilateral addition of seven more OACPS Members to the latest EU Blacklist
Brussels, 7 May 2020/OACPS: The Secretary-General of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), H.E. Mr. Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti today denounced, in no uncertain terms, the unilateral publication of the European Union’s (EU) black list on money laundering which implicates an additional seven OACPS Members.
Secretary-General (SG) Chikoti, in a letter addressed on behalf of the OACPS to H.E. Mr. Gordan Grlić Radman, Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs and Co-President of the ACP-EU Council of Ministers, lamented both the lack of consultation or notice to the affected States and the timing of the action, saying: “The OACPS regrets the unilateral publication of this list, without proper prior consultation with the ACP countries therein mentioned. To this day, neither the Secretariat of the OACPS nor the concerned Member States have been notified of this list, produced by the European Commission (EC).”
While expressing the firm commitment of the OACPS and its Member States to the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, the SG pointed out that the inclusion of the States on the list was not in keeping with the spirit of partnership which exists between the members of the two institutions. The SG further requested the postponement of the adoption of the report, and called for “consultations at the earliest possible opportunity in keeping with articles 8 and 12 of the Cotonou Agreement in order to find a solution.”
The ACP SG added that, “at the moment where the COVID-19 Pandemic is affecting the economies of these States and while both Member States of the EC and the OACPS are trying to find solutions to the crisis, the publication and the adoption of such a list would aggravate the the health and economic crises which are already affecting the concerned countries.”
The addition of the seven countries on the most recent iteration of the list brings to twelve the number of OACPS countries already on the EU’s Black List.
For more information, contact Mr. Bagnénou Lamien, lamien@acp.int