Financial Services Commissioner Mairead McGuinness confirmed the Commission’s intention to add the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the European ‘blacklist’ of high-risk money laundering countries in a letter to Transparency International Director Michiel van Hulten on Monday 24 October.
While the information was already made public by an MEP in July (see EUROPE 12998/19), the Commission has not yet made it official. Contacted by EUROPE on Friday 4 November, one of the institution’s spokespersons recalled that, “In line with the Anti-Money Laundering Directive, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s list of countries is the baseline for the EU’s list of high-risk third countries”. The spokesperson assures that “the European Commission took note of the listing of the UAE by the FATF” and that it “will act in line with the EU legal framework”.
However, the FATF added the UAE to its list in March. “We have known for many years that there were many problems in the UAE. There have been a number of leaks from there that showed that the rules on countering terrorist financing and anti-money laundering were not being followed”, explains Roland Papp, senior policy officer on illicit financial flows at Transparency International, interviewed by EUROPE on Friday 4 November.
“This year there were leaks from Dubai, where the real estate market is a great haven for people who want to launder money”, he says.
He explains that the UAE is quite disparate, with different free-trade zones and the existence of more than 20 different registers for companies. This makes it difficult for banks to verify beneficial ownership. A boon for Russian oligarchs: “The UAE is now a perfect place for Russians to withdraw their money from the EU”, says Papp.
If the UAE is added to the EU list, then UAE nationals and companies will be subject to more controls when they want to open a bank account in the EU, for example.
This addition to the list will only be effective after approval by the EU Council. Mr Papp recalled that the latter had refused, for example, the addition of Saudi Arabia “for political, not technical reasons”.
For the letter from Mrs McGuinness: https://aeur.eu/f/3x3 (Original version in From by Anne Damiani)