Everything has gone wrong since Germany transferred responsibility for its Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) from the Federal Criminal Police Office to the Customs Directorate-General in the summer of 2017. German media repeatedly reported on the disastrous functioning, which represents a security risk for Germany and the entire EU. However, as every EU Member State is obliged under Article 32 of the European Anti-Money Laundering Directive to set up a functioning FIU in order to prevent, detect and effectively combat money laundering and terrorist financing, we called on the EU Commission to take action today.
It is important not only to take action against small Member States for the lack of enforcement of EU laws to combat money laundering, but also against large Member States not complying with their duties. We therefore ask the Commission in a letter and in a written question to open further investigations with a view to initiating infringement proceedings against the Federal Republic of Germany for breach of its obligations under the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (Directive (EU) 2015/849), in particular Article 32 thereof.
Letter to the EU Commission:
Sven Giegold Letter to COM on German FIU
Written question to the EU Commission: