The move was welcomed by the island, which had earlier criticised the EU's methodology in putting it on a list of places deemed to be uncooperative.

The European Commission has reversed its earlier inclusion of Guernsey on a blacklist of jurisdictions deemed to be uncooperative around disclosing tax matters, a move that unsurprisingly was hailed by the Channel Islands jurisdiction yesterday.

Following a meeting of officials in Brussels, the Commission announced its “continued endorsement of Guernsey as a cooperative jurisdiction”, Guernsey Finance, the body representing the island’s financial services sector, said in a statement.

"This clarification should give full confidence to all those looking to do business in Guernsey and enjoy the high quality of the financial business environment here,” Dominic Wheatley, chief executive of Guernsey Finance, said.

“While the confirmation of the Commission’s view is positive for Guernsey, the contribution that Guernsey makes to the European economy should not be overlooked. Research published by KPMG earlier this year showed that Guernsey funds have a total population of £155.4 billion ($240.8 billion) of assets under administration and that almost half of that is invested into continental (non-UK) Europe, demonstrating Guernsey is also an important business partner for the EU,” he added.

Inclusion on a list of uncooperative jurisdictions, which had been issued on 17 June, had prompted anger and concern, with several financial centres questioning the EU Commission’s methodology. At a time of continued pressure for jurisdictions to be transparent, any suggestion of being on a blacklist is understandably seen as damaging.

“Guernsey welcomes the Commission’s confirmation at the meeting that it considers Guernsey to be a cooperative jurisdiction. This recognises not only Guernsey’s adherence to the OECD and Global Forum international standards on transparency and information exchange, but also that our corporate tax regime has been assessed as compliant with the EU’s Code of Conduct on Corporate Taxation, and hence not containing harmful measures,” Jonathan Le Tocq, Guernsey’s chief minister, said in a letter to European tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici.

Guernsey said its track record on tax cooperation and transparency includes: voluntarily adopting the EU Savings Directive and moving to automatic exchange of information from 2011; voluntarily adhering to the principles of the Code of Conduct on Business Taxation, which has been formally endorsed by the Code Group, and being assessed by the OECD's Global Forum on Tax Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes as largely compliant with the international standards on exchange of information on request - a rating that is shared with the UK, Germany and the US.

The island is also party to the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. As at 1 July, Guernsey had 58 tax information exchange agreements in place, including 22 EU member states and 16 Group of 20 members, and 13 double taxation agreements in place.

In the EU Commission's original list in June, those jurisdictions deemed uncooperative were, in alphabetical order: Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Grenada, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Monaco, Montserrat, Nauru, Niue, Panama, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Seychelles, Turks and Caicos Islands, US Virgin Islands and Vanuatu. To see the story, click here.