Members of the European Parliament are dissatisfied with the fight against money laundering in Europe. In a resolution adopted today, MEPs called on the European Commission to be more rigorous in monitoring the implementation of European anti-money laundering rules in Member States. Today’s resolution and the accompanying plenary debate yesterday are the result of an initiative by Sven Giegold of the Greens/EFA Group supported by Christian Democrats, Socialists and Liberals. The resolution is not binding, but the European Commission must respond to the demands of the European Parliament.
MEP Sven Giegold, financial and economic policy spokesperson of the Greens/EFA group commented:
“The EU Commission must no longer watch Member States fail in the fight against money laundering. Money laundering is a security risk for Europe. Criminal money laundered through European banks has become a threat to our internal security. If national governments do not consistently apply EU anti-money laundering legislation, the EU Commission must initiate infringement proceedings. The German FIU has more than 20,000 unprocessed suspicious transaction reports. Germany is thus violating a crucial requirement of the third EU Anti-money Laundering Directive of 2007. The European Commission must finally take decisive action against the blatant abuses in Germany and other Member States.
Together with the other pro-European groups, we are calling for a European approach to combating financial crime. The Anti-money Laundering Directive leaves the Member States too much scope for implementation and should be replaced by a binding and directly applicable Regulation. We can overcome the poor cooperation between the national FIUs with a European FIU. The biggest cases of white-collar crime should be prosecuted by a European financial police.
With regard to the EU list of third countries with high money laundering risks, the EU Commission is still pursuing an intransparent backroom policy. The EU Commission should publish its assessments of third countries with money laundering risks. For full transparency, a grey list of countries under observation could supplement the black list of countries with proven money laundering risks”.
Resolution jointly drafted by Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens on the state of implementation of EU anti-money laundering legislation: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/B-9-2019-0045_EN.pdf