Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2015-05-19-Speech-2-626-000"
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"en.20150519.41.2-626-000"2
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"Madam President, with anti-money laundering, if you cut off the flow in money, you cut off the long reach of criminal groups and terrorists and help better protect the stability of our economy as a whole and individuals in it. The damage that money laundering can cause should never be underestimated. Where criminal activity in our economic markets is concerned, transparency is a powerful weapon. Therefore, the opportunity presented to myself, my fellow rapporteurs and shadows to right the wrongs of past legislation has been both a challenge and a privilege.
Throughout the process, we have looked at international standards, at FATF, and at the need to combat money laundering beyond the borders of the EU and in full cooperation with the rest of the world. The ability to follow money across borders and seize back assets is important, and so is the space in which criminals are able to operate.
I believe that this package will help both to diminish that space for criminals and also to assist us in our ability to follow the money across those borders. For years, both consumers and businesses have run into difficulties with implementing previous legislation on this subject. Our aim has been to create, this time, a sensible, proportionate and effective way forward in the fight against money laundering. I have to say that the second Anti—Money Laundering Directive – with which I and others here were concerned – was interpreted ultimately and implemented in my own country, in the UK, in a way that made life almost intolerable for small investors and those who desired a normal, balanced relationship with their financial institutions.
This kind of undue burden must not be recreated with an even tougher new regime. The need to create fuller transparency, balanced with considering the wider impact upon privacy and the need to provide data protection, has also been a key element of our work. The terms ‘proportionality’ and ‘necessity’ are brought up time and time again in our work here in Parliament, never more relevantly than in our work on this package.
Previous directives have had the effect of providing an excuse, sometimes, for institutions, including banks and building societies, to move their decision-making further away from their consumers and to introduce totally proscriptive and impractical ways of assessing customers. Businesses and financial services need to know what they are looking for and how to address the problem. There needs to be an effective reporting and supervisory system, but equally countries need to comply with, and not just sign up to, international principles and methods, as well as to ensure good cooperation with third countries.
If businesses and our trading partners around the world are going to continue to invest in Europe, and if the single market is to grow and prosper, it is essential we have the right legislative tools and European cooperation in place in order to prevent and prosecute financial crime. Above all else, I hope we have delivered something which is consistent and workable here. For me the ability to effectively implement the package was at the forefront of my mind when I was dealing with the section that I was responsible for. You can have the best laws in the world, but if they are not well implemented, you gain nothing. I now believe, thanks to this package, we will be gaining a lot.
I would like finally to thank all those involved as far as my work is concerned: my co-shadow Mr Simons, the shadow rapporteurs and the other co-rapporteurs. I hope that the vote tomorrow is the start of a new era in the fight against money laundering, using common sense, but also bringing public acceptance at the same time."@en1
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