Monaco and European “blacklist”: Pierre-André Chiappori denounces “extremist journalism”

The Minister of Finance and the Economy, Pierre-André Chiappori, has strongly denied rumours of Monaco’s punitive inclusion on an alleged European “blacklist”, describing the allegations as “surreal” and denouncing an article that was “written in a totally extremist tone.”

Speaking to professionals from the Association Monégasque des Activités Financières (AMAF – Monegasque Financial Activities Association), Pierre-André Chiappori took direct aim at the article that caused the controversy: “Following an article published by a specialised media outlet and written in a totally extremist tone, which I don’t know whether to attribute to amateurism or an intention to cause damage,” he stated bluntly.

The Minister was particularly critical of the use of the term “blacklist”, which he considered to be “completely misleading”. In his view, the expression was used in “confusion with the blacklist of countries that are not fiscally compliant”, a mechanism that “obviously has nothing to do with the FATF”.

A “quasi-automatic” process

Pierre-André Chiappori was keen to point out the real mechanism behind this possible inclusion: “The European list is updated regularly and quasi -utomatically to reflect changes in the so-called grey list, i.e. the list of countries under enhanced surveillance by the FATF.”

The Minister stressed that “any decision that might be taken by the European Union would be the automatic consequence of the FATF’s decision,” adding that “countries on the FATF grey list are systematically put on the European list, with the obvious exception of European Union member states.”

A knee-jerk reaction to ‘bad journalism”

What surprised Pierre-André Chiappori the most was not so much the initial article, which he describes as“an example of bad journalism” in terms of “the quality of the information, coupled with deliberate sensationalism”, but rather the fact that it was picked up by respectable media outlets.

“What surprised me more was that a number of quality newspapers, in particular Les Echos, used the term ‘blacklist’, which is completely wrong,” he said.

Optimism for the future

Despite the media storm, the Minister of Finance and the Economy remains confident as to the outlook for the Monegasque situation. “We hope that if we were to be included on the European list, our removal would also be automatic,” he concluded, pointing out that Monaco has received favourable assessments, notably from the OECD, which considers the Principality to be a “very good student”.

This clarification comes just a few days ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s State visit, at a time when Monaco is endeavouring to demonstrate its progress in the fight against money laundering.