Despite the opposition of the Member States to its list of 23 third countries whose anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing mechanisms are deficient and threaten the European financial system (see EUROPE 12193), the European Commission does not intend to give up and, for this, it can count on the support of the European Parliament.
On Wednesday 6 March, the Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) endorsed the decision to reject the delegated act establishing the list (see EUROPE 12204). The decision is now unanimous since Belgium has joined the opposition camp, according to several sources.
The decision will be formally adopted, without discussion, on Thursday 7 March at the meeting of European Home Affairs Ministers, with a political declaration from the EU Council (see EUROPE 12205) stating that the list "was not established in a transparent and resilient process that actively incentivises affected countries to take decisive action while also respecting their right to be heard".
Commission and European Parliament join forces
The evening before, MEPs from the Civil Liberties (LIBE) and Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) Committees held a last-minute meeting on this subject with the European Commissioner for Justice, Věra Jourová.
The Parliament organised this extraordinary meeting to express its deep concern that "politicised considerations" would prevent the EU from carrying out a rigorous evaluation of the fight against money laundering, explained ECON Committee Chairman Roberto Gualtieri (S&D, Italy).
For Members of Parliament, this situation has a particular taste. Indeed, the Commission had to make three attempts in 2016 and 2017, all rejected by the Parliament, before it finally accepted a new black list of high-risk countries in the fight against money laundering in 2018 (see EUROPE 11950). But this was for reasons very different from those of the Member States and precisely because the Parliament wanted the Commission to carry out an autonomous analysis, MEPs did not fail to point out.
The Commission maintains that its list is the result of an "objective, fair and robust" methodology, which has largely involved the Member States. "I have the intuition that the lobbying that affected the Member States brought some fruits", the Commissioner said.
Asked by Jeppe Kofod (S&D, Denmark) about possible letters or telephone calls from Member States to express their objection, Ms Jourová indicated that she had not received any "official ex ante reaction from Member States".
"I received only one warning from a Minister of Justice at the meeting in Bucharest, who whispered in my ear: 'don't do it'", she explained.
But she does not intend to give up so quickly and would even have "a very clear plan how to achieve the goal of decreasing the risk for the EU financial system and for the security of European people". It would also include holding Member States to account for their political responsibility.
On Thursday, the Commissioner intends, in any case, to defend her list before the Interior Ministers. For her, the fight against money laundering is above all a security issue and she expects to find several pairs of attentive ears in the Home Affairs Council. She also said she had asked for a discussion at the ECOFIN Council on 12 March, but this was "not possible", she said.
While Mrs Jourová can count on the support of MEPs, they also warned her it will be very difficult for the European Parliament to accept a revised list on which several third countries would not appear solely because of political pressure, Roberto Gualtieri said. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)