Attorney General Carl Bethel yesterday issued a statement stating that the recent blacklisting by the College of Commissioners of the European Union (EU) is not a proportionate response. 

Mr. Bethel said that in the circumstances where The Bahamas has, since the implementation of the FATF action plan in October 2018, have been re-evaluated as being compliant or largely compliant with 30 of the FATF’s 40 recommendations. 

These figures, he said, are up from compliance in only 18, in 2017.

 The Attorney General said, “The principle of proportionality is a fundamental tenet of EU Law and the common law. It simply imports that the punishment should fit the offence.”

He added, “to list a country, such as The Bahamas, that has made outstanding progress, in just over one year, in addressing the AML/CFT deficiencies identified in May 2017, together with wholly non- compliant, war-torn or even rogue States is disproportionate, and inflicts harm and punishment on a People with no regard for their important reforms and improvements in their AML/CFT framework.”

He further expressed that such a “one size fits all” approach is unworthy of established democracies and is an affront to their own legal principles. 

Mr. Bethel added that The Bahamas ought not to have been listed and regrets this action by the Eu College of Commissioners and added that the government will seek “all ways to ameliorate and, if possible, encourage the EU commissioners to reverse their decision”.