Security Union: Commission adopts stronger rules to fight terrorism financing

21 December 2016

The proposals being presented by the Commission will complete and reinforce the EU's legal framework in the areas of money laundering, illicit cash flows and the freezing and confiscation of assets.

Ensuring the criminalisation of money laundering

The Commission is today proposing a new Directive to criminalise money laundering and to provide competent authorities with adequate criminal law provisions to prosecute criminals and terrorists and put them behind bars. The proposed measures will:

• Establish minimum rules concerning the definition of criminal offences and sanctions related to money laundering, closing gaps to prevent criminals from exploiting differences between different national rules.
• Remove obstacles to cross-border judicial and police cooperation by setting common provisions to improve the investigation of offences related to money laundering;
• Bring the EU norms in line with the international obligations in this area, as set out in the Council of Europe Warsaw Convention and Financial Action Task Force recommendations.

Putting tighter controls on large cash flows

In order to provide competent authorities with the adequate tools to detect terrorists and those who support them financially, thenew Regulation on cash controls presented today will:

• Tighten cash controls on people entering or leaving the EU with €10,000 or morein cash;
• Enable authorities to act on amounts lower than the customs declaration threshold of €10,000, where there are suspicions of criminal activity, and
• Improve the exchange of information between authorities and Member States;
• Extend customs checks to cash sent in postal parcels or freight shipments and to precious commodities such as gold, and to prepaid payment cards which are currently not covered by the standard customs declaration.

Freezing terrorists' financial resources and confiscating their assets

Freezing or confiscating financial assets quickly across borders will prevent terrorists from using their funds to commit further attacks. Theproposed Regulation on mutual recognition of criminal asset freezing and confiscation orders will:

• Offer one single legal instrument for the recognition of both freezing and confiscation orders in other EU countries, simplifying the current legal framework. The Regulation would apply immediately in all Member States;
• Widen the scope of the current rules on cross-border recognition, to include confiscation from other people connected to the criminal, and would cover confiscation in the case the criminal is not being convicted for example due to escape or death;
• Improve the speed and efficiency of freezing or confiscation orders thanks to a standard document and an obligation on the part of competent authorities to communicate with each other. The rules set cleardeadlines, including shorter deadlines for freezing orders;
• Ensure victims' rights to compensation and restitution are respected. In cases of cross-border execution of confiscation orders, the victim's right has priority over the executing and issuing States' interest.

Full press release

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