Brussels, 12/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - The MEPs did not waste the opportunity to stress the irony at the recent amendment to the anti-money laundering directive, which provides for a measure recommended by the EP in its last revision, but which it failed to see adopted, during an exchange of views with the Commissioner in charge of the dossier, Vera Jourova, on Monday 11 July.
Readers may recall that at the last inter-institutional negotiations on this dossier, in 2014, the EP's negotiating position provided for public central registers to be set in place for the information on the owners of companies and trusts. The negotiations led to the creation of central registers accessible without restriction to the competent authorities and their financial intelligence cells. Persons with a 'legitimate interest', such as investigative journalists or other citizens, would also have access. As regards trusts, the directive did not provide for such access to the information.
Today, the Commission is proposing that the member states publish certain information from the registers of the beneficial owners of businesses and certain trusts (which engage in commercial activities). Judith Sargentini (Greens/EFA, Netherlands), co-rapporteur on this dossier, noted this state of events, followed by Nils Torvalds (ALDE, Finland).
On behalf of the GUE/NGL, Germany's Fabio De Masi said that he did not approve of the exemption from this provision for family and charitable trusts.
Regarding another aspect of the dossier, the risk of high-risk countries, Germany's Peter Simon said that he wanted to go further and questioned the treatment to be reserved for the United Kingdom, which will one day be a third country. Commissioner Jourova said that the list will be updated three times a year.
Pervenche Bérès (S&D, France) raised a number of points, such as the role of intermediaries in money-laundering which, she argues, should be looked into. The Commission is reflecting on this issue and will launch a public consultation in the autumn.
The second rapporteur, Latvia's Kriðjânis Karins, speaking through Burkhard Balz (Germany), both EPP members, welcomed the fact that the Commission is proposing to include platforms for the exchange of virtual currencies in the scope of application of the directive, in order to put an end to anonymity in the exchange of virtual currencies for real currencies. In response to Germany's Sven Giegold (Greens/EFA), who was stressing the importance of implementing the rules, Jourova pointed out that many member states were currently the subject of infringement proceedings. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)