The European Commissioner for Justice, Vera Jourova, is a troubled observer of the negotiations underway between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on the proposed directive to reinforce the fight against money laundering (see EUROPE 11905). She is calling for a swift agreement, but not at any price.
“We need public transparency for companies and trusts”, the Commissioner told EUROPE on Monday 27 November. This is particularly true of trusts that have economic activities, as they can be a “channel for money laundering”, she said, stressing that “we cannot leave this channel open”.
Trialogue negotiations between the co-legislator European institutions are moving towards public transparency for shell companies and access for individuals who are able to demonstrate a legitimate interest for information on trusts. Parliament hopes to obtain public transparency for commercial trusts as well.
At the Council, and the United Kingdom, Ireland, Luxembourg, Cyprus and Malta oppose this. “The text has been taken hostage due to this blockage. We need to find a compromise. I am more in favour of finding a solution that is acceptable to all, but the negotiations cannot go on forever. Either we find a compromise, or we will have to outvote the countries that are blocking it and which are in a minority”, Jourova stressed.
Politically exposed persons. Concerning the provisions on the particular attention that banks and financial institutions must pay to 'politically exposed persons' (PEP), which Germany wishes to limit to foreign PEP, the Commissioner pointed out that the provision had existed in the EU for several years, at least since when she was a minister in 2014. “We don't want any step backwards”, she said.
Furthermore, Jourova wrote last week to Belgian and Spain over their partial notification of the transposition of the fourth 'anti-money laundering directive', a text that was supposed been transposed by the end of June 2017.
In July, 14 member states (Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Finland) were taken to task over their failure to notify the Commission of the transposition measures. Three others (Ireland, Lithuania and Slovakia) also received letters over their partial communication of their transposition measures. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)