Brussels, 28/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - The EU member states are close to agreement in principle on a draft directive on fighting money-laundering, with only a few details remaining to be ironed out in the process of incorporating into EU law and sometimes going beyond the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Financial Action Group on Money-Laundering's recommendations.
After a meeting of EU member states' representatives to the EU (the Coreper committee) on Wednesday 28 May, a European source said there was broad support for a Greek Presidency compromise proposal but a number of details still needed to be settled. The source was confident the details would be sorted out at a Coreper meeting in June so that EU28 finance ministers would be able to agree on the proposal at the Ecofin Council in Luxembourg on Friday 20 June. A Council of Ministers source said that virtually all countries had raised questions and work was continuing.
The draft directive needs to be sharpened up on key beneficiaries and how the owners of trust and foundations are to be dealt with. A Greek Presidency document for Coreper states: “Some concerns still persist in relation to storage of beneficiary ownership information”. Some countries say the suggested fines are too large or too small, depending on the size of the member state in question.
The directive's scope does not seem to be causing any problems. The Greek Presidency recommends that it be left to member states to decide whether providers of gambling services be exempted, following assessment of the relative risk of such an exemption, which must not extend to casinos or online betting. The Greek Presidency says online betting is more dangerous than gambling in physical premises. The Presidency suggests that it be left to the member states to decide on whether to exempt non-reusable services, such as the supply of electronic money, as long as they carry out a risk assessment.
In March 2014, the European Parliament published its negotiating position for the draft directive in question, a position that the new EP will use when it enters inter-institutional talks with the Council of Ministers (see EUROPE 11037). (MB)