The Jersey Evening Post is reporting that the EU has given:

The strongest sign yet that the Island's controversial zero-ten business tax regime is to be cleared by Europe.

The tax package took huge a step forward as a result of the outcome of a meeting of finance ministers of the 27 member states.

The European ministers issued a statement welcoming moves by the Island authorities to change aspects of the structure which are considered ‘harmful'.

To be as kind as I can be to the JEP that is complete and utter nonsense. The EU press release actually said:

“Jersey [has] informed the Group about the proposed legislative amendments to [its] legislation, with a view to removing any harmful elements. The Group welcomed these developments and agreed to review such legislative amendments when discussing the rollback of these harmful regimes under the Polish presidency.”

Which is diplomatic speak for:

We have your letter and will consider it later.

To claim any more than that is just absurd and shows how incompetent those dealing with this issue in jersey are.

They've clung to straws before. This time they're clinging to threads.

And to make the point abundantly clear: what the EU is actually saying is Jersey's tax system was considered harmful and will remain so until the EU say otherwise.

That's the true state of play  - and that's exactly as I've always said things are, however Senator Ozouf wants to spin things.