‘EU Has Fragmented Approach to Combat FinCrime’, Says ECA

🗓️ On Monday 28 June, we will publish a special report on the #EU’s approach to preventing and countering money laundering and terrorist financing.

📲 Don’t miss the findings of our auditors in our upcoming report!

— European Court of Auditors (@EUauditors) June 24, 2021

Efforts of the relevant EU bodies are managed at the national level. However, these bodies have policymaking and coordinating roles and their direct powers are limited. 

One of the ECA members, Mihalis Kozlovs,  said,

“EU-level weaknesses with regard to money laundering and terrorist financing need to be addressed, and the EU’s supervisory role significantly strengthened.” He further added, “Much more needs to be done to ensure that the EU law is implemented promptly and coherently. For a start, the EU should use regulations in preference to directives wherever possible, given the need for legislation to be implemented coherently at Member State level.” 

The report published by the European Court of Auditors concluded that the threat of financial crimes like money laundering and terror financing is increasing over time. Within Europe, Europol has estimated that the value of suspicious transactions is approximately 1.3% of the EU’s GDP. The EU’s weak approach to combat them is not an option. Henceforth, the framework needs attention in order to prevent FinCrime. 

Suggested: | EU’s Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD6)