The Commission approved the results of the
inter-institutional negotiations and can therefore accept the
Council's position at first reading on the adoption of a Directive
of the European Parliament and of the Council on the prevention of
the use of the financial system for the purpose of money laundering
and terrorist financing.
The Commission recognised that the text reflects the
political agreement that was reached between the European
Parliament and the Council, which represents a delicate but
acceptable balance, as part of the overall compromise, as
regards:
- the provisions related to beneficial ownership
information: this information
will be held in a central register in each Member State, which
constitutes an enhancement of transparency which is in line with
the broader Commission's policies. However, as regards the specific
provisions on the access to this information, the Commission
considers that the notion of "legitimate interest" must be
construed and understood in the light of the requirements flowing
from Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, in full
respect of the rules on protection of personal data and the right
to privacy. When transposing the Directive, the Member States will
need to pay particular attention to such requirements in order to
ensure that the access of third parties pursues an objective of
general interest and that the necessity and proportionality which
would justify the restriction of protection of personal data and
right to privacy are fully established;
- the provisions related to the level of administrative
pecuniary sanctions applicable to
financial institutions and to non-financial
institutions;
- the use of delegated acts, and not implementing acts, to identify third-country
jurisdictions which have strategic deficiencies in their anti-money
laundering (AML) and counter terrorist financing (CTF)
regimes.
The Commission can accept the additional
elements introduced in the position of the Council, in
particular that:
- all gambling service providers, not only casinos, are required to apply customer due
diligence measures for single transactions of EUR 2000 or more. In
strictly limited and justified circumstances and on the basis of a
proven low risk of money laundering or terrorist financing, Member
States will be allowed to provide for some exemptions;
- the provision on the definition of beneficial
ownership constitutes a well-balanced result which will allow
an overall understanding of what beneficial ownership
means;
- considering the need for consistency of the EU
framework applicable to cash, the Commission supports that
the threshold applying to natural or legal persons trading in goods
or services is raised from EUR 7 500 to EUR 10 000;
- the removal of the distinction between
“foreign” and “domestic” politically exposed
persons (PEPs), resulting in automatic enhanced due diligence
measures to be required in the case of any PEP, regardless of where
they originate from, represents a fair balance between the
Council's concerns, the European Parliament's reservations and
existing recommendations by FATF; and
- the role given to the Commission to conduct a
supranational risk assessment of the
money laundering and terrorist financing risks that could affect
the internal market and relating to cross-border phenomena will
bring about a coherent approach towards anti-money laundering (AML)
and counter terrorist financing (CTF) requirements at European
level.