Today, 27 April, the European Parliament will vote on the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The Agreement has been provisionally in force since 1 January 2021. MEP Sven Giegold, financial and economic policy spokesperson of the Greens/EFA group, commented:
“The UK did not get everything it wanted. In the area of financial services, Europe has stood firm. Due to the lack of binding rules on money laundering, tax avoidance and financial service providers, the UK hardly gets market access for financial services. Because Britain did not want to bind itself to strong common regulations, it now gets worse market access for financial services than for example Japan. Boris Johnson has not been able to keep his promises in this key sector of the British economy. Full market access to the EU single market is only possible with binding common standards. Europe has defended its freedom to set higher standards against money laundering and tax avoidance without putting itself at a competitive disadvantage. The EU cannot prevent a Singapore-on-Thames, but there will be no open markets for it.
At the insistence of us Greens, the EU Commission has enshrined the importance of anti-money laundering rules in the joint declaration for future cooperation on financial services. The European Parliament’s efforts have paid off.”