The fight against money laundering is key to ensuring financial stability in Europe, experts of the Polish Institute of Economics (PIE) assessed. They pointed out the need to tighten regulations preventing such crimes throughout the EU. As PIE experts have emphasized, legal loopholes in one EU country adversely affect other Member States and the Community as a whole.

At the beginning of July this year, the European Commission has sued three EU countries: Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands to the European Court of Justice (CJEU) for "incomplete implementation into national legislation of the 4th AML Directive" on preventing the use of the financial system for money laundering or terrorist financing (so-called AMLD4). In addition to referring the case to the Court, the Commission asked for a fine to be imposed on those countries, motivating its decision by "incomplete transposition of essential aspects of the law". At the beginning of May, the EC published the so-called Action Plan on money laundering and terrorist financing (AML / CFT). This plan is in public consultation. It drew attention to, among others, ensuring the effective implementation of existing EU legislation, establishing a single EU rulebook, establishing support and cooperation mechanisms for Member States' financial intelligence units, enforcing criminal law and exchanging information at EU level.

According to PIE, the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing is therefore key to ensuring financial stability and security in Europe.

(PAP)