Brussels, 15/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission will publish a counter-terrorism action plan, probably on Tuesday 2 February.
The acting president of the Ecofin Council, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said after a meeting of European finance ministers on Friday 15 January that the European Commission's action plan would be unveiled in early February and would list some “quick wins” that can be made fighting the financing of terrorism.
This is an urgent matter and we can't wait any longer, said French finance minister Michel Sapin, regretting that since the Charlie Hebdo attack in January 2015, no large-scale decisions have been taken at EU level. He said the 2 February action plan distinguished between decisions to be taken now (which don't require legislation) and new legislative acts and procedures.
On Thursday and Friday, Sapin met Migration and Home Affairs Commissioner Avramopoulos, Finance Services Commissioner Hill and Justice Commissioner Jourova, each of whom have powers over the fight against the financing of terrorism. Under pressure from France, the Commission has set up an ad hoc working group and sent a special questionnaire to industry and the member states.
The Ecofin Council will examine measures from the Commission's action plan that come under its remit in its next meeting, in February. Sapin said the Commission promised to present all the proposals set out in the action plan by the end of February.
Euro Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis confirmed that the Commission was working in a number of directions at the same time. He listed the following themes, broadly inspired by French proposals (see EUROPE 11447 and 11446): tighter control of prepaid cards (used to prepare the November 2015 attacks in Paris, Ed.), virtual currencies and cash transfers, tightening rules on the freezing of assets (real estate, social security income) and greater cooperation among financial intelligence units.
German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble said he had stressed that faster progress was needed on the question of how terrorism is financed, and that after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Michel Sapin and himself had produced a letter in early March with tangible proposals. He said the Commission had sent a questionnaire at the end of December asking what the member states proposed for dealing with this crisis and there are still some member states which have not replied yet. He said prepaid cards were an important area to work on. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion and Pascal Hansens)