European Finance Ministers discussed the progress made in the fight against money laundering and possible future reforms in camera on Thursday 10 October.
According to a European source, the ministers took note of the shortcomings identified by the Commission in its four reports published on 24 July last (see EUROPE 12303/2). In doing so, they recognised that the current framework is unlikely to be sufficient to overcome them and that further reforms will be required. However, there are diverging views on the pace to be adopted.
At a press conference, the Finnish Minister of Finance, Mika Lintilä, reported on a “good discussion”, from which he drew several conclusions. Firstly, strong support for greater harmonisation of legislation and the need to discuss aspects that could be regulated by a regulation rather than a directive.
“We must be ready to discuss the form that an EU supervisory body could take. It should have an independent structure and decision-making process”, he added.
Many Member States have indeed come out in favour of European supervision in this area, either by a new body dedicated to this or by an existing one. In particular, France reportedly supports the creation of a European oversight that would be added at national level with a transfer of powers to the European Banking Authority (EBA), with new direct supervisory and sanctioning powers.
Other points of consensus: the importance of implementing recently agreed reforms, such as the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive or the revision of the European Financial Supervisory Authorities, as well as an improvement in cooperation between the authorities and bodies concerned.
Among those pushing for rapid and ambitious reforms: France, the Netherlands and Austria. Other countries, particularly in the East, would first like to analyse the concrete effects of the recent measures put in place. The Nordic and Baltic countries, particularly Estonia, which suffered from the consequences of the Danske Bank scandal (see EUROPE 12244/1), have reportedly shown more moderate enthusiasm. It should be noted that German Minister Olaf Scholz did not take the floor during the discussion.
The Finnish Presidency of the EU Council intends to continue discussions with a view to adopting Council conclusions on a strategic agenda to combat money laundering in December.
Blacklist. The European Commission also presented to the ministers its new methodology (see EUROPE 12209/12) for drawing up the European list of non-Member States with anti-money laundering measures that pose a threat to the European financial system (see EUROPE 12193/28).
“The Commission has made good progress”, said Finnish Minister Mika Lintilä. He assured that the discussion had focused only on the main elements of the methodology and not on the countries that would be included in the list.
According to one European source, only a few Member States took the floor at the meeting, in particular to stress the need to give non-Member States the opportunity to correct their deficiencies before being included on the list, along the lines of what already exists for non-cooperative jurisdictions in the tax field. Some countries also insisted on the precision of the criteria used and their objectivity.
Asked at a press conference about the possibility that, after the EU Council's rejection (see EUROPE 12209/12), it would now be up to the European Parliament to reject the list, European Commissioner for Financial Services Valdis Dombrovskis assured that the new methodology preserved “the EU's decision-making autonomy”. The Commission is in a “complex situation” where it must try to satisfy both co-legislators, he added. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)