S&D Euro MPs will today reject the list of non-EU countries posing high risks of money laundering and urge the European Commission to do a better job by drawing up their own list.

According to EU law, people or legal entities from countries included in this list will have to face stricter controls when doing business in the EU to ensure financial stability and general safety.
 
S&D Group spokesperson on this issue in the civil liberties committee, Ana Gomes, said:

"There is no doubt that the Juncker Commission is more proactive in the fight against money laundering and financing terrorism, but we cannot accept that the Commission relies merely on an international body - the so-called Financial Action Task Force (FATF) - in drawing up a list of jurisdictions with strategic AML/CFT deficiencies.

"The FATF list does not meet our responsibilities in the fight against money laundering, corruption and terrorism. How can we explain to our citizens that Panama for instance, which led to the Panama papers scandal, is not even on the list?

"The Commission should define its own criteria instead of just copying the FATF list".

S&D Group spokesperson on this issue in the economic and monetary affairs committee, Peter Simon, added:

"This is the second time that we are formally rejecting the list of countries which present a high risk of money laundering as proposed by the Commission.

"This procedure is obviously totally ineffective. The list proposed by the Commission cannot be taken seriously. We are starting to have doubts about the willingness of Commissioner Jourova to find a solution. We urge the Commission to come up with a roadmap which will help implement an autonomous evaluation process.

"We need a better list of jurisdictions if we want to seriously address money laundering and dry up the sources of terrorists' finances."

The countries on the most recent list proposed in March by the Commission are: Afghanistan; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Democratic People’s Republic of Korea; Ethiopia; Iran; Iraq; Laos; Syria; Uganda; Vanuatu and Yemen.