Resolution on the state of implementation of the Union’s anti-money laundering legislation

The European Parliament adopted by 530 votes to 14, with 104 abstentions, a resolution on the state of implementation of the Union’s anti-money laundering legislation.

The resolution was tabled by the EPP, S&D, Renew and Greens/EFA groups.

According to Europol, as much as 0.7-1.28 % of the Union’s annual GDP is ‘detected as being involved in suspect financial activity’ such as money laundering connected to corruption, arms trafficking, human trafficking, drug dealing, tax evasion and fraud, terrorist financing or other illicit activities which affect EU citizens in their daily lives.

The Union’s framework for anti-money laundering and countering terrorist financing (AML/CTF) has been progressively strengthened by the adoption of 4AMLD in May 2015 and 5AMLD in April 2018 and their respective dates of transposition into the Member States’ national legislation by June 2017 and January 2020, and by other accompanying legislation and actions.

On 24 July 2019, the Commission adopted an AML package, informing Parliament and the Council about achievements to date and remaining shortcomings in the Union’s AML/CTF framework, and thereby set the scene for further improvements in the enforcement and implementation of the existing legislation and for possible future legislative and institutional reforms.

Parliament is seriously concerned about the lack of implementation of 4AMLD by a large number of Member States and welcomed, in this respect, the Commission’s initiation of infringement procedures against Member States based on the findings of its completeness checks.

It called on the Commission to complete thorough correctness checks as soon as possible and to open infringement procedures where necessary. Those Member States that have not yet done so are urged to properly transpose 4AMLD into their national legislation as soon as possible.

The resolution stressed that the current EU AML/CTF framework suffers from shortcomings in the enforcement of EU rules combined with a lack of efficient supervision. It highlighted that it has been repeatedly stressed that ‘minimum standards’ legislation on AML/CTF could pose risks to effective supervision, seamless exchange of information and coordination. In this regard, Parliament called on the Commission to assess whether a regulation would be a more appropriate legal act than a directive.

The Commission is also called on to:

- further assess the possibility of establishing a ‘grey list’ of potentially high-risk third countries on a basis analogous to the Union’s approach in listing non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes;

- ensure a transparent process with clear and concrete benchmarks for countries which commit to undergo reforms in order to avoid being listed;

- publish its initial and final assessments of the listed countries, as well as the benchmarks applied, so as to ensure public scrutiny in such a way that they cannot be misused.