During a plenary vote on Tuesday 23 April, the European Parliament finally blocked the withdrawal of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from the European list of third countries at high risk of money laundering.

MEPs opposed the European Commission, which wanted to launder the United Arab Emirates in the name of supposed progress made in the fight against money laundering. In a vote, a very large majority of MEPs from the left, center and right opposed the delisting proposed by the European Commission and therefore asked the Commission to review its copy. Until then, the Emirates will remain on the European Union (EU) list style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style”, "serif">, and therefore subject to reinforced surveillance, just like Panama, Gibraltar, Barbados and Uganda, which Brussels also proposed to remove from this “grey list”