July 5, 2016
The Commission has today adopted a proposal to further reinforce EU rules on anti-money laundering to counter terrorist financing and increase transparency about who really owns companies and trusts.
The Juncker Commission has made the fight against tax avoidance, money laundering and terrorism financing one of its priorities. The changes proposed today will tackle new means of terrorist financing, increase transparency to combat money laundering and help strengthen the fight against tax avoidance.
This Commission proposal is the first initiative to implement the Action Plan for strengthening the fight against terrorist financing of February 2016 and is also part of a broader drive to boost tax transparency and tackle tax abuse. This is why we are, in parallel, also presenting a Communication that responds to the recent Panama Papers revelations. The adoption of the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Package in May 2015 marked a significant step towards improving effectiveness of the EU’s efforts to combat the laundering of money from criminal activities and to counter the financing of terrorist activities. It sets high standards to prevent money laundering, such as the requirement for Member States to put in place national registers of beneficial owners of companies and some trusts. Member States have committed to implement the package more swiftly than initially planned, at the latest at the end of 2016.