The issue of beneficial owners of companies could be raised during negotiations between the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament on the Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD 6), according to an EU source contacted by EUROPE on Thursday 22 December.
The Court of Justice of the EU had ruled, on Tuesday 22 November, that the provision of the Directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering, according to which information on the beneficial owners of companies must be made available to the general public, was contrary to EU law (see EUROPE 13068/28).
The EU Council had adopted, on Wednesday 7 December, its position on an anti-money laundering regulation and a new ‘AMLD6’ Directive (see EUROPE 13079/3). In Article 12 of the text, the EU Council specified that “natural or legal persons who have a legitimate interest in accessing the information” are allowed to have access to this information, and this includes “journalists and civil society organisations involved in the prevention and combating of money laundering and terrorist financing”.
“We were reflecting on the recent judgment in course of our discussions on the sixth AMLD”, the source said. “We believe that a solution was found which should be compatible with the EU Court ruling”, the source added.
The European Parliament has yet to adopt its position (see EUROPE 12965/28). (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)