/ world today news/ “At the moment, the EC is monitoring two countries – Bulgaria and Romania – for progress in the fight against organized crime, corruption and money laundering, but this mechanism is exhausted and non-working.” said Iliana Yotova during the discussion of the European Commission’s fourth directive on combating money laundering.
According to her, there is a need for a holistic policy with binding laws and a common approach to fight corruption in the EU. “Commissioner Malmström’s report on corruption showed massive levels of corruption and organized crime in all countries. Three legislative packages have been adopted so far in the fight against money laundering. Unfortunately, the results have been much weaker than we expected. Crime is flexible and always one step ahead. Something has to change.” According to the Bulgarian MEP, Europe must be a leader in the fight against tax fraud and tax havens. “We need common European legislation and convergence of criminal norms in member states, so that cross-border criminal networks do not take advantage of the differences and loopholes in national laws,” she added. Yotova also expressed hope that this policy will be a major part of the new security strategy by 2020.
The Group of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament succeeded in defending its proposal for a directive to create a public register of the beneficial owners of capital and assets in companies and trusts. Only those with a “legitimate/legitimate interest” will have access to this register of beneficial owners. There is no definitive description of what “legitimate/legitimate interest” means in the text, which will allow Member States wishing for more transparency to adopt a broad definition of this concept.
The European Union loses €1 trillion a year to tax fraud, tax evasion and money laundering.
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