European Parliament Approves Decision on Anti-Money Laundering

On April 12, 2000, the European Parliament approved legislation in the form of a decision to strengthen the 1991 EU directive on anti-money laundering. The European Parliament adopted a dozen amendments to the draft. The amendments seek a role for the European Commission in the information exchange procedures, inclusion of money laundering involving as predicates fraud against the EU’s financial interests, effective judicial remedies, and explicit respect for data protection requirements in EU law and in a Council of Europe agreement, the 1991 European Convention on the Protection of Individuals with Regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, which all 15 EU states have ratified…[more]