In February 2019, the European Commission came up with a proposal to include all countries that are not doing enough to fight money laundering and terrorism financing on a blacklist. This is the first time the European Commission has embarked on such initiative.
The decision requires EU banks to carry out detailed customer vetting. More specifically, all EU banks that handle payments connected to the blacklisted countries would have to conduct enhanced due diligence on any money moving to or from the jurisdiction on the blacklist. Also, EU banks would be obliged to act on suspicion by staying away from questionable transactions and reporting to the authorities.
The EU blacklist list is a living document. Countries can come clean if they improve their legislation and fulfil European standards. Other countries can be added to the list if the review of their respective legislation show deficiencies.