MEPs on the committees on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) were unanimous on Thursday 2 June in congratulating Luděk Niedermayer (EPP, Czechia) and Paul Tang (S&D, Netherlands) on their report on the proposal for a directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering or terrorist financing.
“It’s a very good base, an important and ambitious piece, with a lot of good dispositions”, complimented Fabienne Keller (Renew Europe, France).
The co-rapporteurs’ proposal to create a register of beneficial owners via the BORIS interconnection system was particularly appreciated by the parliamentarians. Mrs Keller even suggested doing more, by opening the way to a European register. The idea of creating a national register for high-value assets, such as yachts and luxury cars, was also welcomed.
Karolin Braunsberger-Reinhold (EPP, Germany), however, recalled that this proposal must be “balanced” and “respect data protection”.
MEPs also insisted on improving the exchange of financial information and cooperation between financial units. “Information sharing will be the key”, said Ivars Ijabs (Renew Europe, Latvia). “Member States organise their financial intelligence units (FIUs) and real estate registers completely differently from one another. This makes cross-border cooperation ineffective and, more importantly, makes national authorities incapable of identifying money laundering”, Mr Tang explained.
Finally, MEPs mentioned the importance of coherence between this package and the regulation of the AMLA, the new European anti-money laundering authority.
“There are gaps in our system, and closing these gaps is crucial to make our work more effective, more consistent”, Mrs Braunsberger-Reinhold said, referring to the problems with Russian oligarchs.
At the beginning of the session, Mr Niedermayer recalled that: “Unfortunately, the European framework for combating money laundering and terrorist financing works better on paper than in reality. Its improvement has become even more relevant after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”. “Sanctions were clearly a very challenging task for the Member States’ competent authorities to carry out. There were further problems with the identification of asset owners, as well as doubts about the legality of the money used in certain purchases. What’s more, the people on the sanctions list may only be the tip of the iceberg”, he added. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)