Commisssion launches anti-money laundering package

20 July 2021

Speeches by Vice-President Dombrovskis and Commissioner McGuiness, public consultation

Vice President Dombrovskis "...

Experts estimate that around 1% of the EU's annual GDP is linked to suspect financial activity. While the scale of laundering is difficult to assess, we are talking about many billions of euros in dirty money that is highly mobile and often invisible.

Laundering money is an offence in its own right.

But it is also closely linked to other forms of serious and organised crime as well as the financing of terrorism.

The EU has worked on anti-money laundering - or AML - over many years, with the first AML Directive issued thirty years ago.

We have come a long way since. As criminals have become more imaginative, our laws have had to keep up with this.

However, despite extensive international cooperation and increasingly sophisticated EU legislation, money laundering remains a serious problem.

That became very clear after a major money-laundering scandal hit multiple banks across Europe in 2019"....

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Commissioner McGuiness"...

So today's package is a response to very, very prominent cases, scandals if you like, of money laundering in the financial system and we believe that the package will plug those gaps in our current framework.

It's about consistency, it's about harmonisation, and it's about supervision and enforcement.

Valdis has talked about this new Authority, which is now regarded as essential by Member States and indeed the European Parliament in order for us as a European Union to tackle money laundering at the very heart.

Because this Authority will not just be coordinating at EU level – it will also work with the Financial Intelligence Units within each Member State and have better coordination and harmonisation.

One of the issues that has certainly been raised with me by the financial system is that if they work across borders, there are different rules in different Member States on money laundering. So that isn't effective, it can be costly, and it certainly doesn't work.

We believe this package will end that fragmentation we have across the single market and therefore improve our work in addressing money laundering..."

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Commission Copnsultation: Why we are consulting

The objective of the consultation will be to collect additional relevant evidence in the form of views and opinions supported, to the extent possible, by facts and figures. The consultation aims to obtain information with regard to, for example, the types of public-private partnerships currently operating in the EU Member States in the area of preventing and fighting money laundering and terrorist financing, the public authorities (e.g. FIUs, law enforcement, supervisory authorities) and private sector entities which participate, the types of information exchanged within those partnerships and the measures put in place to guarantee the preservation of fundamental rights. The consultation would also aim to gather input with regard to the mechanisms put in place to measure the effectiveness and success of those partnerships (e.g. key performance indicators (KPIs) or any other performance metrics) and to improve the Commission’s understanding of the impacts, benefits and added value of the various public-private partnerships in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. The call for evidence would also provide an opportunity for the various public authorities and private entities, which take part in public-private partnerships, to explain and elaborate on the challenges faced and what do they pertain to.

The ultimate objective of the consultation is to provide the Commission with sufficient information and evidence for the purposes of preparing the guidance on the rules applicable to the use of public private partnerships in the framework of preventing and fighting money laundering and terrorist financing and issue best practices.


Consultation document


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