European Parliamentary Research Service Blog
money laundering
Understanding money laundering through real estate transactions
Money laundering through real estate transactions integrates black funds into the legal economy while providing a safe investment. It allows criminals to enjoy assets and derived funds having camouflaged the origin of the money used for payment. Continue reading
People travelling with cash [What Europe does for you]
If you are travelling to or from the EU by air, road, rail or sea with €10 000 or more in cash you must declare it to the customs authorities. Continue reading
Golden visa, free ports and letterbox companies from a money laundering and tax evasion perspective
Today’s meeting of the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Financial Crimes, Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance (TAX3) will be devoted to ‘golden visa’, ‘free ports’ and ‘letterbox companies’ from a money laundering and tax evasion perspective. Continue reading
Plenary round-up – Strasbourg, September 2018
The highlight of September’s plenary session was the State of the Union speech by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, announcing a number of legislative proposals to come by the end of the Commission’s mandate. Continue reading
Plenary round-up – Brussels, May I 2018
The May I plenary session highlight was the European Commission statement on the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework package adopted by the College of Commissioners on the morning of 2 May 2018. Continue reading
PANA committee of inquiry [Plenary Podcast]
The European Parliament’s ‘Committee of Inquiry to investigate alleged contraventions and maladministration in the application of Union law in relation to money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion’ (PANA committee) was established in June 2016. Continue reading
Revision of the Fourth Anti-Money-Laundering Directive [EU Legislation in Progress]
Directive (EU) 2015/849, which forms part of the EU regulatory framework to combat financial crime, has shown gaps in the light of recent terrorist attacks and various tax leaks. In this context, the European Commission proposed to amend the directive, along with Directive 2009/101/EC, to broaden their scope, lower thresholds benefiting from exemptions and provide for the creation of automated centralised mechanisms (e.g. central electronic data retrieval systems). Continue reading
Money laundering, tax avoidance and tax evasion: Research papers and a video
Written by Amandine Scherrer, In April 2016, after months of intense work, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung, and over 100 other media partners, published the first news stories on the now infamous ‘Panama Papers’. In the light of the leaks, the European Parliament decided, on 8 June 2016, to establish a … Continue reading
The inclusion of financial services in EU free trade and association agreements: Effects on money laundering, tax evasion and avoidance
Written by Isabelle Ioannides, The EU has increasingly opened up market opportunities for European business by negotiating trade and association agreements, as well as investment agreements, with key countries. Services, which account for approximately 70% of EU GDP, are an increasingly important part of international trade, especially with the growing role of technology and the … Continue reading
NGOs and money laundering: Adapting EU rules to engage NGOs better
Written by Gianluca Sgueo Money laundering (ML) is a major global concern. The minimum identifiable direct costs of organised crime in the European Union (EU) are estimated at around €166 billion a year. Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency and Eurojust, the EU’s Judicial Cooperation Unit, estimate the minimum costs of fighting organised crime at … Continue reading
The revision of EU anti-money laundering tools
Following developments in international anti-money laundering (AML) standards, the European Commission has proposed to revise two major EU instruments in order to strengthen the AML framework and, at the same time, make it more flexible. EU anti-money laundering efforts in the international context Non-binding, but universally recognised recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (or … Continue reading
Changes to EU anti-money-laundering rules
Money laundering has many different forms, and is a permanent threat within and outside the EU. In recent years, the EU has strengthened its anti-money-laundering framework. The Anti-Money-Laundering Directive (AMLD), which incorporates the main provisions for fighting money laundering and terrorist financing, is complemented by the Funds Transfers Regulation, which improves the traceability of actors … Continue reading
Combating money laundering: EU law in an international context
Money laundering is a global phenomenon, the scope of which cannot be reliably estimated. It takes a plethora of forms, characterised by varying degrees of sophistication. Prevention is a crucial element of anti-money laundering (AML) actions, which are not only in the domain of the state, but have increasingly involved the private sector. Checks on … Continue reading
Fighting organised crime: our products that support the EP’s work
For our part, we have produced a set of library products aiming to support the work of the Committee and will continue to do so. Now, in order to provide a comprehensive and complete overview of the topic, we present them all here. If you need a short, but in-depth analysis we suggest you look … Continue reading
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