PhD defence
Anatomy of the EU tax list: a case-study on EU external tax policy
- F. Casano
- Date
- Friday 8 May 2026
- Time
- Address
-
Academy Building
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden
Supervisor(s)
Summary
Since 2017, the European Union has publicly named non‑EU countries whose corporate tax systems it considers harmful, placing them on a so‑called “blacklist” if they fail reforms. While presented as a neutral and cooperative tool to curb tax avoidance, this list has become one of the EU’s most controversial instruments, extending EU’s regulatory authority beyond its borders.
This dissertation is the first comprehensive study of how the EU tax list works in practice. Based on interviews, document analysis, and nineteen country case-studies, it examines why the list was created, how it functions, and how targeted countries respond—balancing perspectives and actual experiences from both the EU and developing countries.
The study finds that the EU’s tax list reflects political compromise more than coherent policy, shaped by competing power struggles within Europe.
Although it helps keep corporate tax avoidance on the global agenda, technical limitations leave significant forms of corporate tax avoidance unaddressed. Listing decisions are inevitably influenced by geopolitical considerations; this creates double standards and undermines its credibility, already weakened by the exclusion of EU Member States with aggressive tax practices from the list.
Ultimately, the list increasingly serves as a tool of pressure. Its effects are felt strongly in developing countries, many of which are required to adopt rapid reforms they had little role in designing. Faced with tight deadlines, governments often prioritise fast, short‑term compliance over long‑term sustainable change.
The dissertation sheds light on who benefits and who bears the costs when powerful actors set and impose global tax rules. It challenges dominant narratives of “good tax governance” by exposing persistent power imbalances between the Global North and South, evaluating the legitimacy of imposing EU standards without regard for jurisdictional socio-economic context, and questioning the EU’s self-legitimising rhetoric of fairness. The study also develops a new framework for understanding how countries behave under pressure and offers policy recommendations for a more technically robust, coherent, and equitable EU approach.
PhD dissertations
Approximately one week after the defence, PhD dissertations by Leiden PhD students are available digitally through the Leiden Repository, that offers free access to these PhD dissertations. Please note that in some cases a dissertation may be under embargo temporarily and access to its full-text version will only be granted later.
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