Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-07-05-Speech-3-156"
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"en.20000705.4.3-156"2
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"I am delighted that Parliament has had to debate the amendments to the 1991 directive on money laundering. This directive was in serious need of revision in order to adapt it to the new international economic and financial climate.
Allow me to close by stressing the need for the debate on tax havens to culminate quickly in specific measures to dismantle them.
France, which is a key figure in the fight against this scourge, has clearly indicated that it intends to make this issue a priority item on the European Union's working agenda.
Just a few figures suffice to substantiate this position. Money laundering accounts for between 2% and 5% of the world's GDP each year. This phenomenon is now a threat of the first order. Financial crime has adapted to the globalisation of the international economy and now has two overriding features: more and more complex techniques are being used to launder dirty money and criminal financial flows are being internationalised.
Discussions have been reopened at international level with a view to proposing effective new measures to fight this scourge. As a result, a United Nations seminar on the prevention of crime and criminal justice was held in France in April last year in order to discuss the fight against international financial corruption circuits. This seminar culminated in the ‘Bercy recommendations’. This action is being relayed through work undertaken in the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) and the financial stability forum.
At European level, the European Parliament has been calling for the 1991 directive to be updated since 1996. The European Commission's proposals follow on directly from the proposals made at international level.
First, the list of offences needs to be extended. Money laundering as defined in the directive should no longer apply solely to the proceeds from drug trafficking, it should also apply to activities linked with organised crime, such as fraud, corruption and any other illegal activity which affects the financial interests of the European Communities.
Secondly, the obligations imposed by the directive have been extended unreservedly to various non-financial activities and professions, such as auditors and accountants, estate agents, traders in precious stones and metals, money carriers, managers, owners and directors of casinos. They also apply to notaries and other independent members of the legal profession engaged in activities which involve a high risk of money laundering.
The idea is to ensure that the parties concerned identify new clients and store documents and evidence. Credit institutions and financial institutions are required to cooperate with the authorities; in other words, banking secrecy is lifted where there is any suspicion of money laundering.
I have therefore voted in favour of this directive, which forms part of the general action plan to fight organised crime."@en1
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