“Bulgaria is not even participating in the process of choosing the headquarters of a new prestigious European anti-money laundering agency – although it is an important institution that will open between 400 and 600 jobs”. This was stated by the MEP from GERB/EPP Emil Radev minutes before the idea of founding the new body was finally approved in the plenary hall of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. “9 countries submitted documents to participate. At the time, Bulgarian Finance Minister Asen Vassilev decided that we would not even participate in the competition,” commented Radev, who is one of the rapporteurs for the new EU anti-money laundering law. With this, Sofia remains the only European capital that does not have an agency on its territory,” the MEP added, reported 24 Hours.
“Until now, only the Council chose the headquarters of agencies. For the first time, the EP also participated in this decision in full rights. The European Parliament had 27 votes – as many as the member states. According to him, all Bulgarians in the European Parliament have made enormous efforts to make geographical distribution an important criteria and to be able a country that does not have an agency on its territory should have an advantage. “I personally voted with 4 votes – I had as many votes as 4 countries. Our chances were good, but we didn’t even participate in this race,” Radev pointed out minutes before the new law was voted on.
“One of the key functions of the new agency AMLA (Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism Authority) is that it will monitor the implementation of the sanctions imposed by the EU. “We will have an authority that will effectively monitor compliance with the sanctions. Of course, there will also be fines for those who violate them. And they are very large – we are talking about tens of millions of euros and percentages of the turnover of large financial institutions. Imagine what figures we are talking about for a bank that operates in several countries in the EU – it can be fined over a billion,” the co-reporter summarized.
“The authority will also coordinate financial intelligence units across the European Union. The establishment of the institution aims to strengthen the EU’s toolkit to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. It is the first such authority at European level that will coordinate efforts, have direct supervision of 40 of the largest European banking institutions, which operate in 6 member states and have a very large turnover,” explains Radev. He points out that the idea is that there are no risks for money laundering, as so far only 1% of these crimes are detected.
Along with the whole money laundering package, a number of new measures are being introduced – for example, businesses and large financial institutions will have to submit more information to prove certain turnovers. Radev explains that this includes banks, financial institutions, professions related to consulting, transactions with large sums of money, casinos, professional football clubs, dealers in luxury goods, gold and precious stones, cryptocurrencies.
Crypto traders will collect information about anyone who makes transactions over 1,000 euros – he will be identified and information will be collected about him. This is necessary because cryptocurrencies allow illegal financing and illegal ventures, including terrorist organizations, finance their activities through this method.
photo: BGNES
Tags: Emil Radev Asen Vassilev failed propose Bulgaria seat Euroagency Policy Eurocom
