Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) discussed on Wednesday 27 November the draft conclusions detailing the EU Council's strategic priorities in the fight against money laundering (see EUROPE 12346/3), in order to prepare for the Ecofin Council meeting on 5 December.
According to our information, there is still no agreement on the text, but it will be submitted to the European Finance Ministers next week for adoption and will not be amended until then. At the Coreper meeting, only Germany expressed any reservations about the text.
The document in question, dated 25 November and copied to EUROPE, acknowledges that further work is needed "to determine the areas in which the current legal framework could be further harmonised throughout the Union".
However, it states that any further reform will have to take into account recent changes to European rules, as well as measures already taken as part of the 2018 EU Council Action Plan.
As part of this work, the EU Council invites the Commission to focus on the financial sector, but also to consider possible improvements in other areas concerning the non-financial sector.
On the other hand, the text adopts a more cautious tone with regard to the creation of a body dedicated to the fight against money laundering, compared to the first version dated 23 October (see EUROPE 12358/5). It invites the Commission to "explore in particular the possibilities, advantages and disadvantages of conferring certain responsibilities and powers for anti-money laundering supervision to a Union body with an independent structure and direct powers vis-à-vis certain obliged entities".
It also asks the Commission to examine whether certain aspects could be better addressed by a regulation, but also to study the opportunities and challenges related to the use of technological innovations in the fight against money laundering.
The draft conclusions also continue to request the Commission to further explore the possibility of establishing a coordination and support mechanism for the cross-border work of financial intelligence units.
Finally, the EU Council invites the Commission to work on all these actions in close consultation with Member States and to report to them every six months, starting in June 2020. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)