Liège, 22/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - Drawing support from the political will expressed by the JHA Council to strengthen the European security arsenal following recent events in the United States, the EU's Finance Ministers, in the words of Didier Reynders after the Eurogroup meeting in Liège on Friday evening, are aware of the urgent need to adopt "concrete measures" to combat the financing of terrorism. In agreement with the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB), the Ministers proposed to make progress on several dossiers concerning avoiding use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering, and the definition of insider trading. They agreed to ensure that the OECD's FATF - Financial Task Force on money laundering's mandate is broadened to cover cases linked to terrorism. Discussions on this subject will be continued at the ECOFIN Council on Saturday. A first report on these initiatives will be submitted to the joint JHA/ECOFIN Council of 16 October.
In a document forming part of the European Council's conclusions, the fifteen Economic and Finance Ministers, the ECB President and the European Commission pledged to take rapid and co-ordinated initiatives to secure a rapid ("in the next few weeks" according to Mr Reynders) adoption of the draft Directive on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering (which is currently in conciliation with the European Parliament which is challenging certain aspects of the lifting of professional confidentiality for lawyers) and the Framework Decision on the execution in the EU of orders freezing assets or evidence, "the scope of which should be extended to terrorist related crimes"; pay particular attention to activities linked to terrorism in the framework of the draft Directive on insider trading and formulate proposals to this effect; reinforce exchange of information between the relevant financial intelligence units in Member States to act pre-emptively against terrorism; give full backing to the efforts of the FATF in its work on non-cooperative countries (tax havens, Ed); adopt a proactive attitude in international fora such as the Basle Committee of banking supervisors, the European Commission's Banking Supervisory Committee, the OECD, the IMF, the World Bank or the EBRD. Candidate countries are invited to align themselves with EU legislation in these areas.
Mr Reynders stressed that tangible progress could be expected in these areas, including in the fight against tax havens.