BERLIN — The European Union has threatened to sanction countries such as Panama if they continue to refuse to cooperate fully to fight money laundering and tax evasion, after a leak of data showed the tiny country remains a key player for people who want to hide money.

A leak of 11.5 million documents from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca showed it had helped thousands of individuals and companies from around the world to set up shell companies and offshore accounts in low-tax havens. Because such accounts often hide the ultimate owner of the money, they are a favored tool to launder money, pay bribes or evade taxes.

So far, the scandal has brought down the prime minister of Iceland and raised questions about the dealings of the president of Ukraine, senior Chinese politicians, famous actors, athletes and the circle of friends of Russian Vladimir Putin, who some allege has profited indirectly from such accounts. “People are fed up with these outrages,” said Pierre Moscovici, who heads financial affairs for the 28-nation EU. He took to task countries like Panama that facilitate such secretive, low-tax accounts.

“The amounts of money, the jurisdictions and the names associated with this affair are frankly shocking,” he said.

The EU lists Panama as a country that is not cooperative on tax issues, and Moscovici urged the country to “rethink its position in this regard.”

The Central American country's government said late Wednesday it is creating an international committee of experts to recommend ways to boost transparency in its offshore financial industry.

President Juan Carlos Varela said the committee's findings will be shared with other nations so joint action can be taken to boost transparency in legal and financial centers worldwide.

But Varela defended Panama against what he called a “media attack” by wealthy nations that he says are ignoring their own deficiencies and unfairly stigmatizing Panama.

Europe is also home to countries with a record of acting like tax havens and providing banking secrecy — Luxembourg, Switzerland, Andorra, among others. The United States has also become a haven, with several states including Wyoming and Delaware now popular places to open anonymous accounts that are cheap to maintain and pay little or no local tax.

Thursday, the German newspaper that first obtained the so-called Panama Papers said it won't publish all the files, arguing that not all are of public interest.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung received the documents from an unidentified source more than a year ago and shared parts of them with dozens of other media outlets around the world.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung said the complete set of 11.5 million documents “won't be made available to the public or to law enforcement agencies.”

The Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which helped coordinate reporting on the leaks, also said it “will not release personal data en masse” but mine the information for details of public interest.

Responding to readers' queries about the absence of prominent German or American politicians in the reports, Sueddeutsche Zeitung said such names haven't yet been found in the documents.

It said the documents include copies of the passports of 200 Americans, and about 3,500 shareholders in offshore companies listed addresses in the United States.