On Thursday 5 December, European Finance Ministers adopted conclusions detailing the Council of the EU’s strategic priorities in the fight against money laundering.
The Executive Vice-President, Valdis Dombrovskis, welcomed “how ambitious” the conclusions were and considered that they reflected the main points raised by the European Commission in its July reports (see EUROPE 12303/2).
In particular, the text mentions the possibility of assessing the advantages of conferring certain supervisory powers on an EU body with an independent structure, without specifying whether it is a new body or an existing entity such as the European Banking Authority (see EUROPE 12378/15).
In a public discussion, no Member State questioned this provision, but many of them attached conditions to it. In particular, several countries asked the Commission to carry out an impact assessment identifying the advantages and disadvantages of such a proposal.
Estonia and Poland also considered that recently agreed reforms, such as the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive or the revision of the European Financial Supervisory Authorities, should be implemented first before considering other options.
For many Member States, particular attention will have to be paid to the division of labour between this new EU body and national authorities. For Hungary, its role should only be to ensure a harmonised implementation of European rules while preserving the powers of national authorities.
For France, it would be logical for the European Banking Authority (EBA) to benefit from these new supervisory tasks, provided that it changes its governance and gives it more direct powers and sanctions.
At the end of the meeting, Valdis Dombrovskis promised that “all options” would be examined. The European Commission is expected to present new proposals to strengthen the European framework for the fight against money laundering in 2020.
Read the conclusions adopted: https://bit.ly/2LpFyXX (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)