A new scandal forced MEPs in Strasbourg to debate the effectiveness of the fight against money laundering in Europe on Wednesday evening (12 February). This time they have learned the lessons of the Luanda Leaks scandal, which shows how the daughter of the former Angolan President, José Eduardo dos Santos, exploited her privileged position to embezzle and launder billions of dollars, as well as its implications in several Member States, including Portugal.
"We're talking about a country where a third of the population is living on less than $2 a day and there are hundreds of millions, billions, which have been taken out of the country. Europeans, European consultants, lawyers, jurists, allowed this, even civil servants were part of this system", lamented Finnish MEP Eero Heinäluoma (S&D), adding: "We have to be stricter!"
And many of them did argue for this, such as Beata Kempa (ECR, Poland), who felt that only "very strict texts with particularly severe sanctions will be able to block criminal groups".
"The European Union should have zero tolerance for dirty money", acknowledged the European Commissioner for Inclusion and Equality, Helena Dalli, who represented the Commission in the debate.
The Commission will adopt a new Action Plan on anti-money laundering (see other news), which will seek to improve the enforcement of the rules. In this context, she will not hesitate to propose changes to the legislative and institutional architecture, she said.
"An EU supervisory body for AML is a must-have. But creating a structure should not be our aim in itself. The body, be it a new one or building on the existing one, has to have a clearly defined scope, powers and, very importantly, efficient governance", she added.
Nevertheless, the real problem is not the lack of rules, Dalli said, but "the implementation of the rules that is carried out at the national level". On Wednesday, the European Commission also opened infringement proceedings against Portugal, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain for failing to notify any national measures transposing the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (see EUROPE 12424/26), despite the deadline of 10 January.
For German MEP Markus Ferber (EPP), the situation is all the more alarming as only 5 countries have reportedly fully transposed the directive and around fifteen - including Croatia, which currently holds the rotating EU Council Presidency - have only partially transposed it. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)