Brussels, 02/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - The action plan to fight the financing of terrorism, which was adopted by the European Commission on Tuesday 2 February, aims to trace the financial movements of terrorists and strike at their ability to raise funds.
This “ambitious” plan will focus on areas in which EU action brings vital added value, said the Vice-President of the European institution, Valdis Dombrovskis. It will be discussed and analysed by the finance ministers at the Ecofin Council of Friday 12 February.
The Commission is calling on the member states to transpose, by the end of 2016, the fourth 'anti-money laundering' directive, which was adopted in May 2015 (see EUROPE 11318). This directive will be modified between now and the end of June, to introduce the following measures: - the inclusion of a list of obligatory controls to be carried out by financial institutions on financial flows from high-risk countries; - reinforcing the competences of the financial intelligence cells of the EU in facilitating cooperation between them; - setting in place centralised national registers of bank accounts and payment accounts; - the inclusion of virtual currency exchange platforms (e.g. Bitcoin) within the scope of application of the directive, to put an end to anonymity in the exchange of virtual currency for real currency; - lowering the thresholds below which the identification of users of prepaid cards is not required and increasing the requirements for the verification of customer identity (see EUROPE 11479).
Also as regards tracing suspicious financial movements, the Commission wishes to enshrine in EU law an “exhaustive and common” definition of the crimes of money-laundering and corresponding sanctions, in order to avoid any obstacles to cross-border police and judicial cooperation. Cash sent by freight or by post will be included in the scope of the regulation, requiring any person entering or leaving the EU to declare any sum of cash above €10,000. Finally, the Commission will consider whether there is a need to create, at EU level, a complimentary system to the EU/United States programme for the tracking of terrorist financing (TFTP), to monitor intra-EU payments.
Terrorist organisations sometimes raise income through illegal trade (cultural goods, wildlife) or legal goods (such as oil). In addition to technical assistance to the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, the Commission will present a legislative proposal in 2017, tightening up the competences of the customs authorities in order to tackle illegal income from the dissimulation of trade transactions, misrepresentation of the value of goods and fictitious invoicing. Another proposal will extend the scope of application of the legislation to tackle the illegal trade in cultural goods to a wider number of countries.
France responded immediately by welcoming an action plan which “takes its inspiration broadly from our proposals and responds to each of our requests”, according to its Finance Minister, Michel Sapin (see EUROPE 11447). On Wednesday, the French government will adopt measures allowing our country to be a “front runner on many measures of the plan”, he added in a press release (our translation). (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)