The European Commission refers Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands to Court of Justice for AMLD4 failings

The European Commission has referred Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failing to wholly implement the fourth anti-money laundering directive (AMLD4) into national law.

After an assessment, the Commission found that each of these countries had not implemented the regulation.

It found that there were gaps in betting and gambling legislation in Austria, mechanisms under which the Financial Intelligence Units exchange documents and information in Belgium and the information to be provided on the beneficial ownership of corporate and other legal entities in the Netherlands.

European Commission executive vice president Valdis Dombrovskis said, “We have robust EU rules in place but they must be applied consistently and efficiently. We will make sure that everyone in both private and public sectors applies the rules rigorously. We have launched many infringement procedures to ensure the full transposition and application of our rules.”

All EU member states were required to implement AMLD4 by June 26 2017 and once this date passed, the Commission opened infringement proceedings against all members as they had all failed to complete the transposition.

There are still open infringement procedures on incomplete transposition against eight member states. Three have received reasoned opinions and proceedings against the two member states are pending before the court.

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