UK rejects European Parliament’s claim Gibraltar is undermining Russian sanctions

A spokesperson for the U.K. government, who declined to be named, said it was “completely inaccurate and unsubstantiated to suggest Gibraltar is undermining sanctions efforts against Russia.”

The spokesperson added: “U.K. sanctions apply in full, and are enforced, in all U.K. overseas territories and crown dependencies.”

The European Commission and the EU’s diplomatic service — which both want to remove Gibraltar and the other countries from the list — criticized the text ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

The MEPs’ vote means Gibraltar will stay on the EU’s list of high-risk countries and EU banks will have to conduct “enhanced due diligence” on cash transfers with the territory, making it harder to do business with it.

Global watchdog the Financial Action Task Force removed the countries from its watchlist in February, prompting the Commission’s move to remove them from the EU’s list too.

In a statement after the vote, the government of Gibraltar said the European Parliament’s stance is “clearly not the result of any technical assessment” and is a “position poisoned by politics,” name-checking specific Spanish MEPs and political groups.