Money-laundering pact could outlaw EU businesses in RI, elsewhere
Money-laundering pact could outlaw EU businesses in RI, elsewhere
Emmanuel Georges-Picot, Associated Press, Paris
Lawmakers from across Europe have approved a plan to clamp
down on money laundering, pledging to isolate tax havens and make
financial transactions more easy to track.
If adopted by national governments, the 30-point plan adopted
Friday would severely restrict business with countries appearing
on an international financial blacklist.
The list currently includes several major emerging markets,
including Russia, Nigeria and Indonesia.
"You're giving a strong political signal of our common will to
fight the blight of money laundering and institute better
international financial regulation," French Prime Minister Lionel
Jospin told the visiting lawmakers.
Parliamentarians from the 15-nation European Union as well as
from 10 candidate countries and Russia took part in the two-day
meeting at the French National Assembly that concluded with the
"Paris Declaration," an action plan to combat money laundering.
The plan must next be approved by national governments.
Included in the plan is a ban on EU companies "opening
subsidiaries, branches or representative offices" in countries
blacklisted by the OECD's Financial Action Task Force on money
laundering, or FATF.
The EU measure would also prevent companies in blacklisted
countries from opening offices in the European Union and limit
movements of money from banks in those countries.
The blacklist currently includes 19 countries and territories:
the Cook Islands, Dominica, Egypt, Guatemala, Grenada, Hungary,
Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Marshall Islands, Myanmar, Nauru,
Niue, Nigeria, the Philippines, Russia, Ukraine, St. Kitts and
Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Several countries have been dropped from the list in recent
years after beefing up their banking regulations and measures
against money laundering.
The lawmakers pledged to make financial transactions more
traceable and called for "coordinated action" against tax havens.
They also pledged to harmonize European regulations by adopting
similar definitions of what constitutes a financial crime.
"Despite recent and real advances, there is still a lot to do
so that, at the international level, it is materially impossible
for funds of criminal origin to use our financial system," Jospin
said.