The European Tax Observatory and economists Theresa Neef, Panayiotis Nicolaides, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, and Gabriel Zucman recommend the creation of a European assets registry as a means of enforcing sanctions against Russian oligarchs in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (see EUROPE 12911/1), in a note published on Wednesday 16 March. They suggest that a working group on asset ownership be set up to collect information on hidden wealth in a unified structure across the EU.
This working group, mandated by EU leaders and supervised by the Eurogroup, would have the task of collecting, cross-checking and analysing all available information on the wealth and assets held in EU Member States by wealthy individuals. It could then pave the way for the establishment of a permanent European register to systematically collect data and information on assets.
The ultimate objective of this registry would be to record all ownership and movement of assets. The registry would provide the highest quality data on the total amount of wealth held by individuals, based on information from all available national and international sources, while creating new sources where information is currently neither present nor sufficiently recorded.
The medium-term objective could even be the creation of a new dedicated European entity, based on EU law or created by a new intergovernmental treaty.
The information gathered by the new structure could be cross-checked by specialised staff and made available to the public for the purpose of combating financial crime.
A feasibility study was commissioned by the European Commission last autumn. Results are expected in April 2023 (see EUROPE 12653/1).
To read the Observatory’s note: https://aeur.eu/f/th (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)