The European Commission presented a new package of measures on Wednesday 21 December to tackle the financing of terrorism by, for example, better tracking financial flows and making it easier to have a decisions by member states to confiscate the assets of terrorist groups recognised throughout the EU.
The initiatives, set out by Commissioners Dimitris Avramopoulos, Vera Jourova and Julian King, were planned before the terrorist attack in Berlin two days previously and also apply to organised crime.
The Commission is proposing a new directive to criminalise money laundering and provide competent authorities with adequate criminal law provisions to prosecute criminals and terrorists. The proposed measures will establish minimum rules on the definition of criminal offences and penalties related to money laundering, and closing gaps to prevent criminals from exploiting differences between different national rules, the Commission says.
It also wants to remove obstacles to cross-border judicial and police cooperation by setting common provisions to improve the investigation of offences related to money laundering and to bring the EU norms into line with the international obligations in this area, as set out in the Council of Europe Warsaw Convention and Financial Action Task Force recommendations.
In a separate regulation, the Commission proposes to tighten cash controls on people entering or leaving the EU with €10,000 or more in cash. “Any sum of money of more than €10,000 entering or leaving the EU, whether in cash, precious metals or pre-paid payment cards, whether carried by a physical person or sent by post, may give rise to comprehensive checks by customs officers”, said Pierre Moscovici, Commissioner in charge of Customs Union.
Authorities will also be able to act on amounts lower than the customs declaration threshold of €10,000 where there are suspicions of criminal activity. This, Moscovici said, would mean that customs officers could freeze the movement of money for a month to allow time to carry out an investigation.
The Commission is also proposing measures to improve the exchange of information among member states, extend customs checks to cash sent in postal parcels or freight shipments and to precious commodities, such as gold, and to prepaid payment cards which are currently not covered by the standard customs declaration.
The proposals on freezing and confiscating assets are aimed at remedying current shortcomings by means of a regulation with direct application, encourage mutual recognition of asset confiscation and freezing decisions. The Commission’s goal is to be able to freeze and confiscate assets as quickly as possible.
The regulation proposed on the mutual recognition of decisions to freeze or confiscate criminal assets will offer one single legal instrument for the recognition of such orders in other EU countries, simplifying the current legal framework.
It will extend the scope of current rules on cross-border recognition of asset freezing to third parties connected to the criminal. The regulation will also cover confiscation in cases where the criminal is not convicted, for example, due to escape or death.
Decisions on recognition of asset freezing orders in another country and decisions for the execution of the orders will be able to be taken more quickly, within 48 hours (within 24 hours for the decision and within a further 24 hours for execution).
The regulation also makes provision for victims’ rights to compensation and restitution. In cases of cross-border execution of confiscation decisions, victims’ rights will have priority over the issuing and executing states’ interests.
The Commission proposed a directive in 2011 on the freezing and confiscation of the assets of criminal gangs and terrorists but only to make such seizures easier at national level. Currently, the Commission estimates that 98.9% of the profits of criminal gangs remain available to them and the regulation seeks to make it easier to confiscate and freeze assets when more than one country is involved. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Élodie Lamer)