Question 14 July 2025 Fulvio Martusciello (PPE)
Subject: Gibraltar, the amendment to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675 and the threat to the single market
The Commission has updated the list of high-risk jurisdictions whose anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorism-financing schemes (AML/CFT) have strategic deficiencies, adding a number of countries and removing others, including Gibraltar.
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 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?
Answer 2 September 2025 Commissioner Albuquerque
Gibraltar made significant progress to improve its Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime, which led to its removal from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) list of ‘jurisdictions under increased monitoring’ in February 2024. As FATF member, the Commission was closely involved in assessing Gibraltar’s progress against its FATF action plan.
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.
The Commission therefore proposed to remove Gibraltar from the EU list of jurisdictions with strategic deficiencies in their AML/CFT regimes.
As both the European Parliament and the Council did not object to the entry into force of the Delegated Act from 10 June 2025 removing Gibraltar from the list, the Delegated Act has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 16 July 2025 as Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/1184[1].
The Commission will continue to closely monitor developments in Gibraltar’s AML/CFT regime. 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 2025[2].
- [1] OJ L, 2025/1184, 16.7.2025.
- [2] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/fr/statement_25_1481.