On Monday 28 June, the European Court of Auditors (ECA) will publish a special report on the EU’s approach to preventing and countering money laundering and terrorist financing.
ABOUT THE TOPIC
Money laundering is the practice of legitimising the proceeds of crime by filtering them into the regular economy to disguise their illegal origin. Within Europe, Europol estimates that the value of suspicious transactions is equivalent to about 1.3 % of EU GDP. Recent data shows that over 75 % of suspicious transactions reported in the EU came from credit institutions in more than half of the Member States.
ABOUT THE AUDIT
The EU has a fragmented approach to preventing and countering money laundering and terrorist financing. Although the relevant EU bodies have a policy-making and coordinating role and limited direct powers, efforts are largely managed at national level. The auditors will explain that EU-level action to combat money laundering and terrorist financing has weaknesses, and that the EU’s oversight framework fails to ensure a coherent approach and a level playing field.
FOR PRESS
ECA press office will hold a virtual briefing on Monday 28 June. Journalists who wish to participate should contact press@eca.europa.eu for details.
The report and press release will be published on the ECA website eca.europa.eu at 5:00 p.m. CET on Monday 28 June.
The ECA member responsible for this report is Mihails Kozlovs.
The ECA’s special reports set out the results of its audits of EU policies and programmes or management topics related to specific budgetary areas. The ECA selects and designs these audit tasks to be of maximum impact by considering the risks to performance or compliance, the level of income or spending involved, forthcoming developments and political and public interest.