Anti-Money Laundering Package: deal strengthens the common framework to crackdown on dirty money in Europe

Renew Europe welcomes today’s early inter-institutional agreement reached between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on both the Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD) and Regulation (AMLR), part of the comprehensive anti-money laundering and terrorist financing legislative package being negotiated in the final stretch of this mandate.

The agreed legislation will contribute to the establishment of an EU single rulebook, prevent disparities between Member States, as well as a lack of enforcement, and will provide with directly applicable European rules to ensure common fight against criminal activity.

Renew Europe MEP Eva Poptcheva (Ciudadanos, Spain), Vice-Chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, ECON co-rapporteur on the regulation for establishing AMLA authority, and ECON shadow on the VI Directive on AML/CFT (AMLD6), stated:

"The new Directive will raise the standards for the prevention of money laundering and terrorism financing across the European Union. It will end loopholes that currently enable criminals to launder their dirty money and circumvent financial sanctions by buying jets, cars and boats."

Renew Europe MEP Ramona Strugariu (REPER, Romania), LIBE shadow rapporteur on the AML/CFT legislative package, said:

"A strong AML package is what we have fought for and what the citizens of the Union expect from us. With the new AML Directive, we are taking significant steps forward in ensuring access to beneficial ownership registers for those on the frontline of fighting corruption and money laundering and serving public interest, such as journalists and civil society. The new AML Regulation brings an innovative change by including the football clubs in the list of obliged entities. After all the scandals involving huge amounts of money laundered in this sector, the EU will finally take action. Money laundering means lost lives, poverty, oligarchy and corruption. It is high time we put an end to it."

Renew Europe MEP Dragoş Pîslaru (REPER, Romania), ECON shadow rapporteur on the regulation on AML/CFT (AMLR), declared:

“Money laundering is a very sophisticated crime. We must respond with equal sophistication in order to safeguard the values that define us – transparency, justice, and individual freedom. It's not just an economic imperative; it's a moral one. We propose the first Regulation of the European Union to tackle money laundering and prevent terrorist financing. The European economy was blackened with dirty money for too long. Our governments were deprived from important funds that could have financed reforms and investments instead of financing wars, weapons and illegal trafficking. Money laundering is giving oxygen to organised crime. This new package will give oxygen to our honest citizens”.

Background

Thanks to the leadership of the Renew Europe negotiating team, the new legal framework enhances cooperation and data sharing between Member States through their Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), and clarifies the access to the information contained in the registries of beneficial ownership for persons with legitimate interest, especially journalists, within the limits set by the European Court of Justice. In this regard, Renew ensured the fees of the cost of making the information available are reduced to the minimum.

Our political group, which is a staunch advocate of the fight against fraud and financial crime, has also introduced limits to cash payments and ensured maximum transparency regarding persons owning or controlling companies, by expanding the scope of obliged entities and providing also a penalty framework if the information is not correct. The deal also foresees the use of Artificial Intelligence by obliged entities and the role it could play into tackling Anti-Money Laundering activities. Moreover, it stresses the positive role of public-private partnerships in the fight against criminal activity.

In addition, Renew Europe called for targeted financial sanctions relating to terrorism and terrorism financing and highlighted the importance of implementing sanctions on Russia, as this has a direct positive effect in reducing the risk of Russian oligarchs’ money being laundered in the Union.

Finally, the agreed legislation is fully aligned with the Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) regulation, making sure that the future EU agency, whose headquarters will be announced in the upcoming weeks, can fully exercise its powers.