EU countries have decided to remove the United Arab Emirates (UAE), together with Switzerland and Mauritius, from the list. The decision has been taken in the framework of the Economic and Financial Affairs (ECOFIN) Council and has been justified by the introduction of new rules on offshore structures adopted by the UAE in September. The EU had requested the UAE to introduce rules that would control the real economic activity of companies in the country. However, governmental institutions and those entities where governmental institutions own more than 51% share of the capital are exempted from these new rules. The decision has angered activists, which have accused the EU of whitewashing “two of the world’s most harmful tax heavens”, according to Chiara Putaturo from Oxfam.