Negotiators from the EU Council and the European Parliament met, on Monday 23 October, to make progress on the strengthened ‘AMLR’ regulation (see EUROPE 13151/15). According to a parliamentary source contacted by EUROPE the following day, “good progress was made”.
Four topics were discussed: high-risk third countries, high-net-worth individuals, politically exposed persons and offshore territories.
With regard to high-risk countries, both parties have defined their positions. Prior to the meeting, Parliament had sent a message to the EU Council and the European Commission “to make its position heard and set out arguments that could help find a compromise on each of the four points”. The Commission has therefore been given a mandate to work on these issues. “The aim is to work around these elements to work on a text which takes into account the concerns of both sides”, the source added.
The same scenario applies to wealthy individuals. The two institutions disagree on the threshold at which a person is considered wealthy: the Parliament has set it at €1 million, the EU Council at €30 million. The Commission has also been mandated to find a compromise.
With regard to politically exposed persons, “both parties completely shared the same objective”, commented the source. If a political figure does business with an obliged entity, he or she will have to exercise greater diligence. The question is how large the group of politically exposed persons is. One of Parliament’s political priorities is to ensure that mayors and heads of regional authorities are also taken into account.
With regard to offshore territories, the solution proposed by the EU Council and which seems to be agreed by the negotiators is that, instead of creating a separate article, they will be mentioned in the high-risk annexes.
“Both parties are willing to find agreements in the coming weeks”, concluded the source. Technical meetings will be held before the next meeting, scheduled for mid-November. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)