Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of money laundering or terrorist financing and amending Directive 2009/101/EC

On 5 July 2016, the Commission issued a proposal for a Directive (COM(2016) 450 final) amending the so- called fourth anti-money laundering Directive ((EU) 2015/849) . Opinions on this proposal have been issued by the European Central Bank and the European Economic and Social Committee. The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe issued comments strongly criticizing the proposal.
The Slovak Presidency released a compromise text on 13 December 2016. Austria, Poland, Slovenia, France and Italy issued statements relating to the adoption of the Council’s negotiating mandate on the proposal, evidencing the divisions within the Council on this issue.
The European Data Protection Supervisor released Opinion 1/2017 criticizing the proposal for not respecting the principles of purpose limitation and proportionality.
In the European Parliament, two Committees have assumed responsibility for the dossier: the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. The Committees presented their draft report on 7 November 2016 and it was adopted by joint committee vote on 28 February 2017. On 14 March 2017, the Parliament plenary confirmed the joint Committees’ decision to enter into interinstitutional negotiations.
Trilogues took place on 21 March, 4 April, 10 May and 7 June 2017. On 13 December 2017, the Council reached a provisional agreement which resulted in a final compromise text and on 20 December the Council and the European Parliament reached political agreement on the text.