The European Parliament advocates the creation of a European Union financial investigation unit, in an amendment tabled by the S&D and Greens/EFA groups, which MEPs supported (354 votes in favour, 283 against, 20 abstentions) by adopting, on Tuesday 26 March, the final report of the ‘TAX 3’ special committee on combating financial crime, fraud and tax evasion.
MEPs are of the opinion that by presenting by 1 June their assessment on the obstacles to increased cooperation between national financial investigation units, the European Commission should take this opportunity to “issue a legislative proposal for an EU financial investigation unit (FIU), which would create a hub for joint investigative work and coordination with its own remit of autonomy and investigatory competences on cross-border financial criminality, as well as an early warning mechanism”. This European Unit should also support national units “in cross-border cases in order to extend the exchange of information”, they add.
Co-rapporteur on this report, Jeppe Kofod (S&D, Denmark), welcomed the Parliamentary plenary's call for a “much more centralised approach”. According to him, the objective would be to strengthen the existing network of national units under the aegis of Europol.
Parliament also endorses the TAX 3 special committee request to the Commission to immediately work on the creation of a European financial police force.
Such a force would assist “national financial police in cross border cases of fraud and money laundering”, Mr. Kofod said.
For Luděk Niedermayer (EPP, Czech Republic), co-rapporteur on this dossier, the scope of this police force would be “narrower” than that enjoyed by a European financial investigation unit.
The result of a year's work, the European Parliament's report, adopted by a large majority (505 votes in favour, 63 against, 87 abstentions), lists many actions that the Commission and the Council of the EU should take to combat tax evasion, fraud and money laundering more effectively at European level (see EUROPE 12202/16, 12203/5).
In view of the scale of some money laundering scandals involving Northern European banks in particular, MEPs welcome the increased powers that will be granted to the European Banking Authority as a result of the reform of the European Financial Supervisory Authorities (see EUROPE 12219/6). While they advocate the establishment of an “observatory” in this field, they are not however, calling for the creation of an ad hoc European authority.
The lack of political will in some Member States is also criticised, with seven of them - Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands - being targeted for facilitating aggressive tax planning.
As for golden visas, which allow the granting of a residence permit, or even citizenship of a Member State, in exchange for substantial investment in the host country (see EUROPE 12178/2), the Parliament calls on the Member States concerned to phase them out.
Finally, MEPs ask their successors to set up a permanent parliamentary sub-committee within the Parliament that would focus its work on following up the recommendations of this report.
Every year, €826 billion is lost as a result of tax evasion in the EU, Kofod said. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)