Prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing: Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago and Tunisia

The European Parliament rejected (357 votes to 283, with 26 abstentions) a motion for a resolution to object to the Commission delegated regulation of 13 December 2017 amending Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675 supplementing Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council, as regards adding Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago and Tunisia to the table in point I of the Annex (high-risk third countries).

The Commission intends to add Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago and Tunisia to the list of high-risk third countries in the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/1675. It based its decision on the reports from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the mutual evaluations report carried out by FATF and FATF-Style Regional Bodies (FSRBs) in relation to the risks posed by individual third countries in line with Directive (EU) 2015/849.

Members behind the draft resolution argued that at the FATF plenary meeting in Buenos Aires, Tunisia expressed a strong political commitment to execute the action plan of 3 November 2017 without any further delay.

At a meeting held in Saint Petersburg on 11 January 2018, the Tunisian authorities presented to the FATF experts the measures taken to implement this action plan since the last Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) plenary of December 2017.

Members noted that the MENAFATF adopted a re-rating of Tunisia on 6 December 2017 which was much more favourable and has not been taken into account by the Commission in its reasoning to add Tunisia to the list of high-risk countries.

They recalled that Tunisia has shown great commitment and political will to make the reforms needed and requested by FATF and that this country, engaged for the past seven years in a phase of democratic transition which cannot be compared to that of any other country in the region, still has to deal with a considerable number of challenges.

On the basis of these considerations, the motion for a resolution called on the Commission to submit a new delegated act.