{"id":227313,"date":"2025-06-30T18:55:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T18:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/227313\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T18:55:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T18:55:10","slug":"latest-european-commissioner-warns-parliament-rejecting-aml-blacklist-would-undermine-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/227313\/","title":{"rendered":"LATEST: European Commissioner warns Parliament rejecting AML blacklist would \u2018undermine the EU\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By PAUL O\u2019DONOGHE, Senior Correspondent<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE European Parliament must approve the proposed changes to the EU\u2019s AML (anti-money laundering) blacklist, the bloc\u2019s Financial Services Commissioner has warned.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Commissioner Maria Lu\u00eds\u00a0Albuquerque also sought to reassure MEPs (Members of the European Parliament) around the proposed removal of the UAE (United Arab Emirates).<\/p>\n

\u201cMany countries have made big efforts to improve their frameworks for fighting money laundering and their cooperation with the EU,\u201d she said in an address to the European Parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to acknowledge this progress and to proceed with their delisting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFailing to do so will mean that some of these countries are facing huge economic consequences. It will also undermine the EU\u2019s credibility as a reliable partner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Albuquerque spoke in the European Parliament in an effort to get MEPs to approve the European Commission\u2019s proposed changes to the EU\u2019s AML blacklist.<\/p>\n

The EU list<\/a> identifies \u201chigh-risk jurisdictions\u201d with \u201cstrategic deficiencies\u201d in their AML regimes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It has not been updated since 2023. The EU list is proposed by the European Commission. It normally closely follows suggestions from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the body which sets international AML standards.<\/p>\n

The Commission proposal must then be approved by MEPs in the European Parliament, MEPs can only approve or reject the Commission\u2019s proposal, not amend it.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month<\/a>, the Commission published its formal updated proposal. High profile changes include removing the UAE and adding Monaco.<\/p>\n

Ms Albuquerque said the changes must be approved by the Parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot having an updated list has an impact on the competitiveness of our financial sector. [It] instills uncertainty in the union\u2019s business environment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI therefore want to strongly call for your support to ensure that this updated EU list can enter into force.\u201d<\/p>\n

MEP concerns<\/p>\n

Several MEPs voiced concern over the proposed updates. These mostly centred around removing the UAE from the list. They said the jurisdiction has not done enough to combat reports of large-scale money laundering.<\/p>\n

The UAE was previously grey-listed by the FATF, although it was removed in 2024. It has recently handed out several AML fines amid a crackdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

German MEP Birgit Sippel also said the Commission\u2019s proposals are too closely aligned with the FATF.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have the impression that more or less the commission is simply copy pasting the reports and decisions from the FATF,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

However, Ms Albuquerque rejected this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would argue again that we are not simply doing a copy paste. The fact is that we add conditions,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have top ups on the conditions that are imposed by FATF. And we have indeed managed to get significant further commitments from some of these jurisdictions since they were delisted by FATF.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AMLWe hope you enjoyed reading this article<\/p>\n

If you would like unlimited access to AML Intelligence premium articles, newsletter delivered twice a week, access to our Global Bank Fines and Penalties database, free access to Boardroom Series events and much more, select one of our subscription options and become a subscriber!<\/p>\n

View subscription options<\/a>If you have an account, log in<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By PAUL O\u2019DONOGHE, Senior Correspondent THE European Parliament must approve the proposed changes to the EU\u2019s AML (anti-money…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[72105,2000,299,5187,2557,20730,17470],"class_list":{"0":"post-227313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-aml","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-european-commission","13":"tag-european-parliament","14":"tag-maria-luis-albuquerque"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114773840867354917","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}