The new External Strategy aims at making the EU approach towards the outside world stronger and more coherent. The European Parliament highlighted the importance of an EU approach to third countries in the fight against tax avoidance. The ATP study shows very clearly that third countries' tax rules may play an important role in the structuring of aggressive tax planning schemes. There have also been several examples of multinational companies shifting their profits towards third countries jurisdictions that offer very low level of taxation. It is therefore important for Member States to act in a coherent way against such practices. This needs to be done in a coordinated manner as the fight against tax avoidance is only as strong as the weakest link. On the other hand, the EU is also aware that third countries may themselves be victims of base erosion and profit shifting. This was stressed at the Third Conference on Financing for Development in July 2015 88 and was at the heart of the debates linked to the adoption of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda 89 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 90 . The EU is therefore committed to support them in strengthening their good governance standards for tax purposes.
The external strategy includes the following aspects:
1.re-examining EU good governance criteria;
2.improving tax good governance through agreements with third countries;
3.supporting developing countries in meeting tax good governance standards 91 ;
4.developing a common EU approach to listing and evaluating third countries for tax purposes;
5.and ensuring the use of EU funds supports tax good governance.
With regard to the development of a common EU list of third countries, the Commission envisages a three-step approach. In a first step, the Commission would identify jurisdictions that need to be prioritized for screening at EU level. Prioritization would be based on a scoreboard of indicators 92 . It aims to identify a sub-set of countries which score highly on indicators often associated with ATP and which have strong economic ties with the EU. Being in this subset does not necessarily mean that the country is involved in BEPS-driven activities, but rather provides a starting point for a more detailed assessment. In a second step, on the basis of the outcome of the scoreboard, Member States should decide which jurisdictions are to be assessed against the updated good governance criteria. The assessment will be carried out by the Commission and the Code of Conduct for Business Taxation and it will incorporate a dialogue with the third countries concerned. In a third and last step, Member States should agree on an EU list of problematic tax jurisdictions, based on a recommendation from the Commission.
