Meeting on 23 January, EU finance ministers removed eight jurisdictions from the EU’s list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, following commitments made at a high political level to remedy EU concerns. Barbados, Grenada, the Republic of Korea, Macao SAR, Mongolia, Panama, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates were moved to a separate category of jurisdictions subject to close monitoring. The decision leaves nine jurisdictions on the list of non-cooperative jurisdictions out of the 17 initially announced on 5 December 2017. In other business, ministers discussed measures to address non-performing loans in the banking sector, examined growth prospects and macroeconomic imbalances under the European Semester, adopted the conclusions from the Commission’s Annual Growth Survey and Alert Mechanism Report, and approved a draft recommendation on the economic policies of the euro area. They also discussed the further development of EU economic and monetary union, as well as the priorities of the Bulgarian presidency regarding economic and financial affairs.