MEPs warned in a plenary debate on Wednesday 1 February about the politicisation of the EU’s list of high-risk third countries in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. They called on the EU Council to quickly approve the European Commission’s update of the list.
Last December, the European Commission updated the European list of high-risk third country jurisdictions in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (see EUROPE 13088/17). Following the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), it suggested adding the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gibraltar, Mozambique, Tanzania and the United Arab Emirates.
The EU Council, which has one month to object, has delayed its approval by one month, as permitted by the ‘AMLD4’ anti-money laundering directive.
Parliamentarians see a “politicisation” of the list, suspecting that it is being used for diplomatic purposes. “We do not want to see a repeat of what happened in 2019, when a delegated act was subject to objections because some Member States were included”, protested Ernest Urtasun (Greens/EFA, Spanish).
Jessika Roswall, the Swedish Minister for European Affairs, explained that the postponement was only a question of timing. “The Council stands ready to examine any list put forward by the Commission, which adopted this delegated act on 19 December. After that, we initiated without delay an internal process to assess Member States’ intentions regarding this act”, she explained.
“However, given the date of adoption, the period for this assessment largely overlapped with the holiday period in our Member States. For this reason, the objection period has been extended”, she justified. The deadline for objections is Monday 20 February. She stated that the EU Council does not wish to oppose the delegated act.
However, some MEPs want the process of updating the list to be reviewed to avoid any influence that certain third countries might have on Member States.
EUROPE spoke on Thursday 2 February with Eero Heinäluoma (S&D, Finnish), co-rapporteur on the revision of the anti-money laundering regulation.
“Third countries are lobbying Member States and MEPs to avoid being labelled as high risk third countries”, he said. The process should simply follow the FATF criteria, which would “make things easier”.
“This list should not be linked to diplomacy. This would be more understandable and acceptable to third countries”, he said.
“If this list did not carry diplomatic weight, they would have no reason to pressure or threaten the EU, which would facilitate geopolitical issues”, he concluded.
During the debate, Ramona Strugariu (Renew Europe, Romanian) expressed surprise that golden passports were not yet banned. “Russia is circumventing EU sanctions through these jurisdictions”, she argued. “Why are we still thinking about this today?”, she asked.
For its part, the Commission respects the position of the EU Council, “which needs time to examine the delegated act”, considered Jutta Urpilainen, European Commissioner for International Partnerships.
“The list is not the end, but the start of a process to help jurisdictions improve their anti-money laundering frameworks”, she said. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)