Tunisia, Sri Lanka and Trinidad and Tobago will finally be on the blacklist of high-risk countries for money laundering and terrorist funding. A slim majority of MEPs voted against the motion of rejection of the European Commission’s delegated act (357 votes for, 283 against with 26 abstentions).
The list is in the form of a delegated act under the money laundering directive. The Commission had made three earlier attempts for a delegated act in 2016 and 2017 but all were rejected by the relevant European Parliament committees. A fourth proposal had been adopted after silence procedure in November 2017 (adding Ethiopia to the list). It was on the fifth proposal for a delegated act that the Parliament gave its stance on Wednesday 7 February.
The Commission had established its position on the basis of recommendations by the financial action group, GAFI. Tunisia had greatly increased its contacts with Parliament.
After the vote, the S&D Group underlined the need for the Commission to withdraw Tunisia from the list as soon as conditions are met.
“Tunisia has brought in 26 reforms out of 40. There are still 4 major reforms to be made”, Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui explained to EUROPE on Monday 5 February (see EUROPE 11954). EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova, for her part, explained to MEPS that the timetable for Tunisia’s withdrawal from the list will depend on the effort made by Tunisia. (Original version in French by Elodie Lamer)