Brussels, 20/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 20 May, the European Parliament approved the inter-institutional agreement reached in December of last year on the fourth money laundering directive (see EUROPE 11220), which stipulates that the ultimate owners of companies must be listed in central registers of the EU countries. Kriðjânis Kariòð (EPP, Latvia), co-rapporteur on this dossier, described these registers as a “powerful tool which will help in the fight against money laundering and blatant tax evasion”.
The central registers will be accessible without restriction to the competent authorities and their financial intelligence cells. Individuals with a 'legitimate interest', such as investigative journalists or other citizens, will also have access. Welcoming the progress made, the French MEP Eva Joly, spokesperson for the Greens/EFA for taxation matters, criticised this provision. “Up to each member state to define the perimeters” of what constitutes a person or entity with a legitimate interest, “with the risk that some of them will water it down as much as they can. In particular, under pressure from the United Kingdom, the draft includes a specific regime for trusts, which will be exempt from the publication obligation”. The information accessible will be the name of the ultimate owners, their month and year of birth, nationality, country of residence and details on the ownership. These central registers are a provision added by the MEPs. Petr Jezek, ALDE's shadow rapporteur for the committee on civil liberties, welcomed the step, stressing the Parliament's leading role in the legislative process.
Member states may decide whether to make these registers public. On the day of the vote, the NGO Transparency International noted that the UK, France, Denmark, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands had stated that they planned to establish public registers for companies. According to the NGO's figures published the same day, four out of five citizens are in favour of public registers.
The text also allows the states to authorise exemptions for companies which can prove that publishing the names of their owners could endanger them. The provisions on politically exposed individuals are also clarified: these are people at greater risk of corruption on the grounds of the position they hold (government leader or member, Supreme Court judge, members of parliament and their family, etc).
The directive also extends the scope of application of legal and natural persons covered by reducing from €15,000 to €10,000 the threshold above which a cash payment must be the subject of particular scrutiny. Gambling service providers must pay particular attention to transactions greater than €2,000. The European Lotteries Association welcomed the adoption of the text. Its president, Friedrich Stickler, said that the text struck the right balance, on the one hand by recognising “the risks of money laundering that lie in the gambling sector (…) and on the other, allowing the member states to apply the appropriate control for the different gambling services”. The MEPs also approved a regulation on the transfer of funds, aiming to improve traceability.
The Council has already approved the inter-institutional agreement (see EUROPE 11298) and the states now have two years to transpose the directive into their legislation. (Elodie Lamer)