Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs Ordinary Meeting – Joint Meeting with Members of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
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ECON, LIBE European Parliament
Bruna Szego
But we must also balance timeliness with high-quality outputs that correctly reflects the differences across the financial and the non-financial sectors and allows also for sufficient stakeholder engagement. And for these reasons, last year we requested adjustments to few deadlines and proposed a phased approach to some mandates. Next slide please. Thank you. Now, few words on supervision.
First, we are preparing for direct supervision. We are building our risk assessment model for selecting and supervising the 40 financial institutions that will be directly supervised by AMLA, and we are now testing it on real data. We are also identifying which institutions may be eligible for direct supervision, and in both fronts, we are working closely with national authorities. We will run the first selection from 1st July 2027 so that we will be ready to start direct supervision in 2028. Second, supervisory convergence.
We are building and testing a similar risk assessment model to be used for supervision at national level. We are also developing a common supervisory methodology and a handbook together with national supervisors so that they and AMLA can supervise in a comparable way across the EU. Third, the non-financial sector. Given its lower level of maturity, we are developing a pragmatic and phased approach, and a first baseline risk assessment model is currently out for public consultation.
Next slide, please. Okay, turning to the FIU pillar. You can see from this slide that we have made progress in several areas: organizing the FIU pillar, partnerships, standards, and support and coordination. I would like to draw your attention on two: so on standards and on the FIU support and coordination framework. So on standards, our recent efforts have focused on harmonizing how and what information is exchanged between FIUs and standardizing STR templates across the EU.
And these, I think, are key factors to ensure higher quality financial intelligence. On the support and coordination framework, we are completing the FIU mapping and our first pilot peer review, which is focusing on resourcing of FIUs. And this will provide both AMLA and FIUs a basis for tailoring mutual assistance and training. And finally, by the end of this year, we will be ready to start conducting our first pilot joint analysis. So, next slide, please.
Yeah. So let me conclude with what I see as key challenges. First, as I've stated before, the state of convergence is low. And this is particularly acute in the non-financial sector, where achieving meaningful results will take time. Second, proportionality and simplification.
These are indeed guiding principles of our work, together with effectiveness. We are using all flexibility that is available in level one to simplify and be proportionate. However, this is not always easy to achieve. Third, our capability to detect and respond to risks relies on strong technological capabilities. And this is increasingly important today as geopolitical instability and technological developments are reshaping the threat landscape, both in scale and complexity.
Building these capabilities will take time and sustained efforts. So, while these challenges cannot be resolved overnight, AMLA will continue working with all stakeholders to achieve tangible progress in convergence, in effectiveness, and to strengthen our capacity collectively to address evolving money laundering and terrorism risks. So, next slide, which is just a thank you slide. So thank you very much for your attention, and I'm now happy, happy to take your questions.
Mr. Gschossmann, thank you very much for your presentation, and now we will continue with the questions and answers section of today's debate. So the first round of speakers, and on behalf of EPP, I would like to invite Mr. Niedermayer to take the floor. Please, you have the floor.
Luděk Niedermayer
Thank you, thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Chair of AMLA, for being here. We should thank you for providing us pretty well with the information and the progress, and congratulations with the current achievement. I have two questions. The first one, you said that next year you will focus on the selecting the directly supervised entities, so if you put a little bit more light on what are the essential points of this and also if you can little bit illustrate what change it will represent for the supervised entities, directly supervised entities, because we believe that they will benefit from more coherent approach from the point of view of supervisor in that important field.
And the second slightly different topic, we had recently here in the Parliament exchange about the frauds in the housing market and I know that in our past debates you very often mentioned that the sector related to real estate is one of the most risky and we can see a lot of anecdotal evidence that this is the problem. So I wonder if we can expect a little bit progress in this area that is highly not only economically but also socially sensitive area. Thank you.
Thank you. Please, yes, please.
Bruna Szego
So first of all, thank you very much for these questions. These are really important and on the selection, on the selection process. We are building a selection that is built on four criteria. First, the selection has to be objective, it has to be robust, it has to be consistent among countries and it has to be transparent. So what is the approach here?
The approach is that each eligible entities will be, we will apply the same methodology, the same indicators, the same scoring rules and those will be applied to data that are reported under a single harmonized reporting framework with common definitions. This will ensure that the process is robust but it's also objective and consistent among countries. How is the model built? The model is built to catch inherent risk and to catch the quality of controls because combining these two we will have the score on the residual risk. And how and what are we doing right now?
We are testing this model with the real data as I was telling you in my presentation so to be sure that the model is delivering good, comparable and robust results. We will finish this testing by the end of the year and as I was then we will have to collect the data that are needed to run the model for 2027, start the selection in July and then publish the list of the 40 entities soon as the selection is finished. What will be the main impact for selected entities? Well, I think that selected entities will have great opportunities for being under direct supervision because they will be, we are talking about financial institutions operating in more than six member states, so we are talking about cross-border institutions. So they will have to comply with only one single set of supervisor expectations and they will have a more easy dialogue with supervisor because the supervisor will be AMLA.
But this is not to say that the financial institutions that will not be selected will not be in a similar position. Why am I saying this? Because we are also, you know, and as I was telling you in my presentation, we are also delivering on a supervisory handbook. This means that supervisory convergence will be reached.
Supervision will be run in the same way in Europe, both for direct supervision and for indirect supervision. On the housing market, well, I think that I agree that the real estate market is one of the riskiest ones among the non-financial sector. And I think that this is due to several reasons. First, the size of the market itself that can absorb large amount of funds. Then the significant amount of funds that are involved in a single transactions.
The fact that there are no clear rules on asset evaluation. We see also that frequently you can see the use of complex company structures in buying and selling properties. So I think that all these risks are important and I think they are also being flagged by the FATF on the one side at international level, but also by the supranational risk assessment and also by national reports. So I think that ensuring that not only we have uniform rules in the EU, which is why the AML framework was built for, and having the single rulebook completed will be important. But I think it will be important also to have robust and risk-based supervision around key professional gatekeepers in the real estate market, which are notaries in some markets.
Not entire EU housing market requires a notary to buy or sell a property. And real estate agents and so. And I think that this is important not only for AML. I think it's important also from a broader perspective. Sorry, I just finish this point.
From a broader perspective because I think that there are economic models and empirical evidence showing that there is a correlation between the money laundering on the one side and raising housing market prices. Okay, because of course AML increases demand for properties and this may affect prices. Sorry I was so long.
Mr. Ghandi, I apologize for interrupting you, but we have so many speakers so that we can listen to all of them. And if we have more time in the end, you're free to speak. So on behalf of S&D, I would like to invite Ms. Tinagli to take the floor, please.
Irene Tinagli
Yeah, actually I wanted to go back on the real estate market and so I will give you the chance to further elaborate and to continue what you were saying because indeed we know that real estate is one of the most vulnerable sectors to money laundering. We know, we've seen also the studies that also show an impact in certain areas where you have the highest number of reports on AML, you do see some impact on the prices. But at the same time, you know, there are specific AML challenges in dealing with real estate because it's related to the involvement of a very wide range of obliged entities whose roles and compliance practices differ across Member States, as well as the use of complex ownership structures that can obscure the beneficial ownership.
So, while real estate markets are largely national, however, we do see transactions that may involve cross-border activities, such as foreign investors, financing, or complex corporate structures. So, how does AMLA intend to use the tools provided by its mandate, including common risk assessment methodologies, supervisory convergence, enhanced data cooperation, to foster a more consistent supervisory approach and better identify higher-risk real estate transactions? And while we are at it discussing this, do you think you would need further tools? Do you think that Member States could do something more? So, any suggestions on these would be really welcome as the Parliament is also looking deeply into the housing and real estate.
Bruna Szego
Thank you very much, Mrs. Tinagli. Yes. Well, I think that, you know, the AML package does provide AMLA with quite a number of tools. But I would distinguish between ex-ante tools and ex-post tools. So, ex-ante, we have the regulatory level.
This means that in delivering our products on the single rulebook, we will have to be sure that we are tailoring the risks that are different for each sector. And this is what we are currently doing. I think that we will also need to make sure that the rules are understood by obliged entities. And this is why we are also developing, we will be developing explainers. And this is particularly important for the non-financial sector, explaining what the expectations are on their side, what we think they should do.
Third, second, third thing is that, as I was already saying, we will be harmonizing supervision. And this means that delivering on risk assessment models and on a supervisory methodology will be key to ensure that supervision on the real estate market is done in a robust and even way throughout Europe. Of course, we could also use our joint analysis tool, which I think it's a very powerful and important tool to understand how the risks will be in the real estate market will be evolving and be able not only to understand but also to address both the FIU activity and the supervisors' activity towards where those risks will be coming from. Ex-post, obviously, you know, we are tasked with peer reviews. We are tasked with thematic reviews, which could be tailored to the real estate market to understand how supervisors are doing in that market at a national level and to have a more common and comprehensive view and to see where the challenges are, where the loopholes are, and what we can do about that.
And of course, you know, we are building a database that will cover in the years to come also the non-financial sector. This will give us, AMLA, some, you know, insights, data that we can use to monitor and benchmark. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Szego. And now I would like to invite on behalf of the Patriots, Ms. Győri, to take the floor, please.
Enikő Győri
Thank you, Madam Chair. Gentile Presidente, benvenuta. It's a pleasure to have you back. And I will continue in my mother tongue in Hungarian.
Tisztelt elnök asszony! Az én frakciómnak különösen fontos, hogy minden új intézménynél, minden új szabálynál azt vizsgáljuk meg, hogy az mit jelent az állampolgárok vagy az európai vállalkozások szempontjából. S tudom, hogy önök még az építkezés fázisában vannak, de engedje meg, hogy a való életből hozzak önnek egy példát. Pár hónappal ezelőtt megkeresett egy kisvállalkozó, hogy látogassam meg, ő egy ékszerkészítő, elsősorban üvegből, de valamennyire nemesfémből is készít ékszereket. A Covid alatt kezdte, a családi házának a padlásán.
Éves árbevétele néhány tízezer eurót, hát olyan tízmillió forint körül van. A nemesfémek miatt érvényesek rá a pénzmosás elleni szabályok, így például kötelező készíttetnie ügyvéddel egy olyan húsz-harminc oldalas szabályzatot. Ennek részletesen tartalmaznia kell, hogy milyen eljárásokat kell foganatosítani közben, például kiemelt közszereplők ha vásárolnak tőle, akkor még további papírokat kell kitöltenie. Mindez nagyrészt a negyedik pénzmosás elleni irányelvből fakad. Úgy érzem, hogy a kötelezettségei ennek a hölgynek erősen nincsenek arányban a vállalkozás tényleges kockázatával.
Óriási bürokratikus teher hárul rá. Ezen túl még nagyon gyakran ilyen helyszíni ellenőrzéseken is át kell esnie, ilyenkor az ellenőrök végigsétálnak az otthonában, hogy eljussanak a tetőtérbe, ahol dolgozik, és egész szürreális jelenetek zajlanak le, mind a vállalkozó, mind az ellenőr elég kellemetlenül érzik magukat. Mindent meg kell vizsgálniuk, dokumentumokat, szabályokat, ki van-e minden függesztve, tehát erősen aránytalan, ami történik. A szabályok azonban a jelen helyzetben mérettől és kockázattól függetlenül mindenkire ugyanúgy érvényesek. Így két kérdésem volna.
Hogyan fogja tudni a pénzmosás elleni hatóság elősegíteni, hogy a vonatkozó uniós jogszabályokat valóban kockázatalapúan és arányosan alkalmazzák? Illetve, hogy milyen szerepet vállalhat a hatóság a felesleges adminisztratív terhek csökkentésében, különösen a kis-, közepes-, de leginkább a mikro-, egyszemélyes vállalkozások, mint az én ékszerkészítő hölgy ismerősöm, és alacsony kockázatú vállalkozások esetében, miközben megmarad a pénzmosás elleni fellépés hatékonysága? Köszönöm szépen.
Bruna Szego
Thank you, thank you very much. Well, I think that you're tackling really a quite an important, quite an important issue, which we are really caring of and taking care of. What surely we don't want to be is a bureaucratic authority requiring for ineffective and burdensome requirements. And we are putting all our effort to achieve a system and rules that are effective on the one side and that they are really truly risk-based. Of course, we have to do that within the boundaries and the limits of level one.
Why do I say this? Because you know that, you know, the AML package has put great effort into detailing requirements, in particular for CDD.
So CDD is most of the requirements are already set in level one, and for sure AMLA regulation and standards cannot be uncompliant with level one. So what are we doing to be sure that we are simplifying, we are proportionate, but we are not deregulating? So first, for each measure that we are issuing, we give justification and reasoning of how we have applied proportionality and simplification and a risk-based approach. Second, as I also was saying before, and this is also true for smaller entities in particular, we will be developing explainers so that entities know what they should do. And we are also developing simplified regimes for small entities.
Third thing that we are doing is that we are grouping mandates that are interrelated so that we have a clear picture of how the requirements are interlinked so that we can be more consistent. An example of that is for the risk-based supervision. We are listening to the industry quite a lot, not only through public consultations and public hearings, but really having a constant dialogue with the industry. And third, which is more on the reporting side, we are making sure that whenever we ask for data, we are not asking the same data that someone else already has. So avoid reporting the same data twice.
Thank you.
Thank you. And on behalf of ECR, I would like to give floor to Ms. Maląg.
Marlena Maląg
Dziękuję bardzo, będę mówiła w języku ojczystym. Od czerwca wygasły przepisy przejściowe pozwalające świadczyć usługi w dziedzinie kryptowalut w oparciu o luźniejsze licencje i wymogi, z czego skorzystała polska Zonda Crypto, która upadła akurat na czas, aby nie stać się obiektem głębszych kontroli. Wykluczone ze świadczeń usług zostały podmioty, które nie uzyskały niezbędnych zezwoleń. Jednak jak ostrzega Europejski Urząd Nadzoru Bankowego, firmy, których wnioski zostały odrzucone, mogą próbować kontynuować działalność, odwołując się od decyzji, przenosząc działalność do innego państwa członkowskiego czy też nadużywać narzędzi odwrotnej akwizycji. Monitorowanie sytuacji jest szczególnie trudne na rynku cyfrowym, gdzie strony internetowe, aplikacje i usługi mogą być oferowane transgranicznie.
Podobne trudności mogą wystąpić w przypadku grup, gdy autoryzowane w Unii Europejskiej podmioty są powiązane z podmiotami państw trzecich, oferując produkty regulowane i nieregulowane. Przedmioty informacji, które mogłyby pomóc w identyfikacji takich zagrożeń, są rozproszone między krajowe organy nadzoru kryptoaktywami, krajowe organy nadzoru AMLA, jednostki analityki finansowej. Jak widzi pani rolę AMLA w koordynacji tych działań? Co można ona zrobić, aby przeciwdziałać sytuacjom takim jak upadek polskiej Zonda Crypto? Wiadomo, że kryptoaktywa jako zjawiska nowe i nie do końca rozpoznane będą jeszcze długo stanowiły dogodne narzędzie nie tylko dla prania pieniędzy, ale i do naciągania i oszukiwania klientów.
Jak koordynacja z założenia roli AMLA może się przyczynić do uporządkowania tego rynku? Dziękuję bardzo.
Thank you. Ms. Schob, please.
Bruna Szego
Thank you. Thank you very much for for this question, which I think addresses a real issue. And I agree with you that, you know, the end of the transitional period of MiCA, which ended 1st July, will result not only in a significant restructuring of the EU crypto market, but also in some additional risks that can that can come out. Two of them in particular I would like to flag. The first one is the, you know, for VASPs that are being wound down, we see the risk of, you know, being those VASP pressured on the winding down procedure and not being sufficiently not not making not having sufficient attention, having less attention to to to continuing applying AML and CFT checks correctly.
Because, you know, your customers will will rush to withdraw and and this will put additional pressure to these to these VASPs on the one side. On the other, you have the other side of the coin. You have CASPs that have been authorized and licensed and they might have a large scale migration of new customers all at one time. And for them as well, it will be really important that they they the onboarding will be done in in in an efficient way without the risk of de-risking. And this is also this is also a challenge.
So a challenge both from the, you know, the VASP that will be exiting the European market and from the CASP that will be having the new clients in. And it's for this reason that last week we published an advisory note exactly on these issues and on these risks. And we also suggest that the, you know, what mitigating measures both financial institutions could could take, you know, VASP on the one side and CASP on the other. So what can we do in addition to that? Well, I think that we can definitely and we are already doing that, we can coordinate action both at with with national supervisors on the one hand, but also at European level.
Thank you. And on behalf of Renew, I would like to invite Mr. Kelleher to take the floor, please.
Billy Kelleher
Thank you very much and to wish you well as you increase the capacity and capabilities of AMLA. I want to wish you and all your staff very much success. The transitional period under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation has now come to an end, meaning that firms operating under the new framework must be fully authorized. At the same time, the international landscape is evolving quite rapidly as you referenced already with United States signaling a more permissive approach to crypto-assets. Against this backdrop, it is more important than ever that the EU maintains a coherent and effective supervisory regulatory framework.
Last year AMLA identified crypto assets as one of the supervisory priorities that has since issued guidance to national competent authorities on the transition to the new regime. We've also seen the Financial Action Task Force publish its latest report highlighting the money laundering risks associated with crypto assets, particularly stablecoin. And against this backdrop I have two questions. First, as the MiCA regime becomes fully operational, how will AMLA go beyond issuing guidance to ensure a coordinated supervisory response to high risk or unauthorized crypto asset service providers seeking to exploit passporting, reverse elicitation, third country structures or divergent supervisory practices across member states? And does AMLA have a timely access to the information and intelligence it needs to identify these risks and coordinate actions?
And secondly, Madam Chair, in future MiCA package will bring some if not all CASPs under the direct supervision of ESMA. However, given the methodology for selecting obliged entities for direct AMLA supervision, relatively few crypto asset firms are likely to fall under AMLA's direct remit. Do you consider this division of responsibility to be sufficient from AMLA and CFT perspective or is there a case for strengthening AMLA's role as the crypto asset service provider action, sorry, as a crypto asset sector grows, apologies. Thank you.
Bruna Szego
Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah, I think that, you know, last year we already talked about cryptos and I told you why these are very important for the AML and CFT. Basically because of their structural features, because of their increased used and last but not least because, you know, rules were recently adopted in EU and we needed to make sure that they are applied consistently and that supervision from day one is consistent as well. And you were mentioning and I also told you that we, this is why we prioritized the CASP, the crypto asset market as one of the most important ones where to start from.
And this was and that is what we did. We have a plan which is quite a comprehensive, I think, plan on crypto assets that we are we are carrying out right now. And it's structured around four elements. The first one is understanding the risks. So we will have we will have a strategic report on that, how are risk evolving in the crypto asset market.
The second the second element is how to ensure that supervision on CASPs is robust and evenly robust in Europe. So the second I would say area of this plan is understanding how supervisors how supervisor practices are right now, you know, being being tailored for for addressing in an effective way the risks of CASPs. Third, we are also equipping ourselves with capability to to understand the market. So to understand to be able to analyze blockchain and so we are equipping ourselves with with methodologies and blockchain analytics. And and fourth, cooperation in EU and at national level I think it's it's it's really super important.
So to address the challenge that you were saying I think that this plan which will be which will deliver concrete outputs in terms of where we stand in Europe, where the difficulties are, where the differences are, I think it's it's important.
We will publish a report by the end of this year. And of course, you know, targeted follow-ups with national competent authorities if needed, we will do that as well. Information. How how are we getting the will we get information on? You know that AMLA is building a database.
It's according to the AMLA regulation. And this will cover the information that are needed from all financial institutions and from non-financial beginning from starting from 2029. So AMLA will be equipped with the with the with the information that are needed to monitor that market as well. Thank you.
Marina Kaljurand
Thank you. And on behalf of the Greens, I would like to give floor to Mr. Andresen. Please, you have the floor.
Rasmus Andresen
Yes, thank you so much and thanks also for attending our meeting. I'm really also looking forward to see the next step in the work of AMLA. We in Parliament always, and you know this, had a strong priority on on the authority and it's good to see that things are progressing quite well. I have two questions. First of all, on the risks from the non-financial sector where AMLA also got got a clear mandate.
Here I would like to get a better understanding of what your assessment is for the non-financial sector. Maybe you could elaborate a little bit further on that. And secondly, on the list of high-risk third countries. We know that this always is a very delicate debate also here in Parliament with a lot of controversial, yeah, controversial elements in it. For example, on the United Arab Emirates and so on, we had some tough debates inside the house here.
And here I would also like to get a better understanding of how do you see AMLA's role in this, in contributing to the list of high-risk countries, also compared to other institutions and and other elements where we sometimes are facing some political difficult debates here in the house.
Bruna Szego
Yeah, thank you, thank you so much for this for this question. So, non-financial sector. I can tell you, you know, I I went on a roadshow last last year and I also published a report on what I saw. And what I can tell you is that the non-financial sector is really the blind spot for every member state. Why is this?
Because there are thousands of people out there, because we are talking about professions, so lawyers, accountants, notaries, etc. We are talking about many other people. We are talking about jewelers, we are talking about car dealers, we are talking about crowdfunding platforms, we are talking about real estate agents, so on and so forth. Football clubs in 2029. So we're talking really about many, many people.
Some of which are new to the AML framework, so they don't really know what they should do and what they are expected to do. So this is why this is why what we are doing in AMLA is to have a pragmatic and phased approach. So you cannot get to the 100 you would want to go in, you know, in two years' time, but you have to phase your approach to be sure that, first of all, rules are understood, people know what they are expected to do. And third, that the methodology that we will be asking supervisors to use is a methodology that they are able to use.
And this is also quite a challenge because supervisors in the non-financial sector, well, some of them are already there, but most of them are not yet there. They don't even know who the non-financial sector obliged entities are because registration requirements will be put in place once the directive is transposed. So right now the situation is a bit, you know, it's a bit difficult. So we need to have, I think we need to have this approach that I was telling you, and this is what we are doing. What did we do in practice?
We started with a survey last year to understand what the situation is. Then I already told you about my roadshow. Then we are delivering on a basic, as I was also saying before, we are delivering on a basic risk assessment methodology for the non-financial sector, very basic. And for the standards, as I was telling you, we will be developing explainers to help people understand what the rules are about and what their role is. The second question, high-risk countries, do I have time?
Can I have go? Okay, thank you, thank you. Thank you for this because, you know, I have a bit of an opportunity to update you on what we did because, you know, last year and last year, last December we had the opportunity to have a talk around the fact that, you know, I think that AMLA will have a role, an important role to play to support the Commission in identifying third countries that are beyond the FATF list. But I also told you that fortunately these tasks will start from 2027, so we have a bit of time, you know, to organize ourselves. We need to have a methodology to be sure that we will be giving the right support to the Commission.
What did we do in the meantime? First, we are contributing to the Commission's work on the methodology for identifying these additional third countries. We are developing our own capabilities and our own methodology to deliver on that, so that we will be ready when time comes.
Thank you. And on behalf of the Left, I give the floor to Mr. Günther, please, you have the floor.
Martin Günther
Ja, vielen Dank, ich werde in Deutsch sprechen. Leider habe ich sehr viele Fragen mitgebracht. Der deutsche Immobiliensektor gilt seit Jahren als primäres Einfallstor für internationales Schwarzgeld, was unter anderem die Mieten und Immobilienpreise in Ballungsräumen künstlich in die Höhe treibt. Obwohl in Deutschland mittlerweile ein Bargeldverbot bei Immobilienkäufen gilt, bleiben Schlupflöcher über verschachtelte Holdings, Auslandskonstrukte und Treuhänder bestehen. Dem muss endlich Einhalt geboten werden.
Wir müssen den Wohnungsmarkt von dieser Gefahr befreien. Welche konkreten Maßnahmen würde die AMLA ergreifen, um das Parken von illegalen Vermögen in deutschem Wohnraum effektiv zu stoppen, und kann die Behörde einen Beitrag zur Entlastung des Wohnungsmarktes leisten? Eine sehr konkrete Frage zur politischen Erreichbarkeit und Transparenz der AMLA in Frankfurt. Aus der Praxis müssen wir berichten, dass Kontaktversuche von Abgeordneten des Deutschen Bundestags mit der Behörde in Frankfurt bislang erfolglos blieben und unbeantwortet versackten. Ab wann und über welche dezidierten Kanäle plant die AMLA eine verlässliche Erreichbarkeit und einen transparenten Dialog mit gewählten Abgeordneten auch der nationalen Ebene sicherzustellen?
Und ich habe noch ein wenig Zeit, dann würde ich noch mal zum Thema Finanzskandale wie Cum-Ex und Cum-Cum haben ja gezeigt, dass kriminelle Finanznetzwerke und Großbanken grenzüberschreitend europäische Steuerzahler um Milliarden geprellt und diese Gelder anschließend im globalen Finanzkreislauf weißgewaschen haben.
Nationale Behörden stießen bei der Verfolgung oft an ihre Grenzen. Inwieweit kann die AMLA durch ihre supranationalen Aufsichtsfunktionen sicherstellen, dass solche komplexen grenzüberschreitenden Steuer- und Geldwäsche-Delikte von Großbanken künftig besser bekämpft werden? Ich erspare Ihnen die nächsten Fragen, vielleicht kommt ja noch ein Catch-the-Eye. Danke.
Bruna Szego
Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. So, on the real estate, well, yes, I think I can just, you know, repeat what I already said on what we are doing and what the tools are. So, using all the tools that are in place for the non-financial sector, because we are talking about non-financial sector, and we are gradually putting them in place. On the dialogue at national level, well, indeed, I can tell you that, you know, we are, we have been prioritizing our dialogue mostly with the industry at a European level right now, because we thought that that was really important now that we are issuing, you know, level two and level three measures and and now that we are building a system that is for them in particular.
So, we are, indeed, we prioritize our engagement with the industry at a European level. This does not mean that AMLA is not, you know, keen in having a dialogue at national level. So, definitely, we will do that. Tax evasion and Cum-Ex, Cum-Cum-Ex, we are talking about tax evasion, we are talking about a predicate offense of money laundering. So, definitely, you know, we will use the tools that are there, not to prevent tax evasion per se, but to be sure that we, in the sense that the system is able to track back the money that are coming from tax evasion, track them back and and so that tax evasion per itself can be can be prevented and can be prosecuted by someone else.
Marina Kaljurand
Thank you. I do not have anybody from ESN on my speaking list. If there's anybody who would like to take the floor, I don't see. Okay. Which means that we are concluding the first round of questions and answers and we continue with the second round, same procedure, two minutes for question, three minutes for answer.
And I will start with Mr. Radev representing EPP. Please, you have the floor.
Emil Radev
Уважаема госпожо Сего, като докладчик на Европейския парламент по регламента за създаване на органа за борба с изпирането на пари, за мен е удовлетворение да видя, че за малко повече от година след приемането на законодателството, органът вече е изградил основните си управленски структури, разработил е стратегическата си рамка и е поставил основите на бъдещата си надзорна дейност. Но създаването на нова европейска агенция никога не е било самоцел. Ние изградихме AMLO не за да създадем още една административна структура, а за да укрепим доверието в европейската финансова система след поредица от тежки скандали, които разкриха сериозни пропуски в националния надзор и в координацията между държавите членки. В тази връзка критерият за успех няма да бъдат броят на приетите вътрешни правила или проведените заседания.
Истинската оценка за ефективността на АМЛА ще се определя от способността ѝ да осигури еднакво прилагане на правилата във всички държави членки и да гарантира, че престъпните капитали няма да намират най-слабата брънка в европейската финансова система. Докладът показва сериозен напредък в институционалното изграждане. Това е здрава основа, но следващата фаза ще бъде значително по-трудна. В тази връзка следва да се обърне внимание на набирането на висококвалифицирани експерти. При положение, че от следващата година се очаква агенцията да заработи с почти пълен капацитет, ще имате ли достатъчно служители, които да поемат една от най-важните ѝ задачи, а именно прекия надзор на рисковите финансови институции?
Какви мерки се предприемат за преодоляване на недостига на висококвалифицирани кадри? И вторият въпрос: има още една област, в която очакванията към АМЛА са особено високи — прилагане на ограничителните мерки на Европейския съюз и противодействието на опитите за заобикаляне на санкциите чрез финансовата система. Какви конкретни действия предприема АМЛА, за да подпомогне държавите членки при откриването и предотвратяването на опитите за заобикаляне на санкциите чрез финансовата система? Благодаря ви.
Thank you. Please, Mr. Gego.
Bruna Szego
Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. Those are two very different questions, but I'll try to address them. Okay, on recruitment. Well, I think that the last time that we talked about recruitment, I think I told you that my aim is to have a diverse, to recruit people that have diverse skills.
And this is what I don't think that we, I think that we need to have a wide variety of skills in AMLA, meaning that we will need to have not only supervisors, but also mathematicians, statisticians, crypto-asset service providers, experts, IT experts, so on and so forth. And this is what we are doing right now. We are really trying to have the best that we can in our recruitment, in our recruitment plan. Indeed, the last bit of the recruitment will be the 200 people that will be employed in direct supervision. And this is something that we will do next, next year.
But in addition to that, you also have to be mindful of the fact that direct supervision will be run not only by AMLA staff, but also by people coming from national authorities through JSTs. And there again, it will be super important that we have all the skills that are needed to be fully in, fully able to capture the risks of cross-border impactful financial institutions that will be under AMLA's direct supervision. On targeted financial sanctions. Well, yes. I think this is really important, in particular in the current geopolitical context.
I think that getting, you know, targeted financial sanctions applied correctly is really important and it's part of Europe defense strategy, I would say.
What are we doing? Well of course we are we are delivering on on our mandates but we are also you know coupling the mandates with some broader guidelines so that we can deliver a more holistic approach to how to be sure that targeted financial sanctions will be applied in a consistent in a consistent way and so that we are also sure that obliged entity you know understand what what is expected expected from them and what what they should do. But in addition to that we are also building you know an operating framework to support that. That means that we are not talking only about rules but we are talking also about embedding targeted financial sanctions application in in in supervisory in supervisory practices and and in the handbook in our data collection etc. So that we are sure that everything not only is is operating in in theory but also in practice.
Marina Kaljurand
Thank you. On behalf of S and D I would like to invite Ms. Sippel to take the floor.
Birgit Sippel
Thank you very much chair and thank you Mrs. Cségo I will try to concentrate my question on two areas. First of all your report already mentioned that AMLA began to start preparatory engagement with EPPO Europol Eurojust OLAF and working arrangements are currently negotiated. We very much welcome these efforts especially at a time when all these bodies are undergoing mandate revisions but cooperation is essential to translating financial intelligence into investigations prosecutions asset recovery and the disruption of organized crime as we also underlined in our recently LIBE resolution on upcoming anti-corruption strategy. So in order to make all these arrangements operational I would like to ask whether you can already provide us with more detailed information on what concrete working arrangements information exchange channels and referral mechanisms AMLA will establish and on what timetable. And another question is on the data protection officer.
We note that AMLA appointed its DPO already last year and given the highly sensitive nature of the financial intelligence and personal data which AMLA will handle robust and independent data protection oversight is essential. So can you tell us about the role the DPO has played so far and what safeguards are in place to ensure this officer can act independently as AMLA's data holdings and information sharing with law enforcement partners expand. Thank you very much.
Bruna Szego
Thank you. Thank you very much for these questions. So the first one on working arrangements with European law enforcement agencies I think this is really key. It's key because at the end of the day we're not you know if we are here to deliver good intelligence but to whom? So we must be sure that we are able not only to deliver good intelligence but to pass it through to the law enforcement agencies.
All the four European law enforcement agencies so to set up, you know, good cooperation and to start working on working arrangements. Where do I think working arrangements will be particularly important? Two things. First, risk assessment. AMLA will be in place, will be able to have good, I think, a good macro risk assessment, but also liaising with law enforcement agencies at European level will be important to gain their information at a macro level and to exchange information of where do we see, both of us see risks coming from.
The second one is more operational. We could, we can exchange and we will be exchanging information on particular, particular cases and particular situations. European law enforcement agencies will be able to join joint analysis as well. And so this is also quite, quite important. We are, you know, moving forward with these, with these working arrangements.
Two of them are being finalized, let's put it this way. So I'm pretty, I'm pretty, I'm pretty happy about, you know, the work that we are doing and in finalizing these arrangements. The DPO, the data protection. Well, I think it's really important, you know, data protection is, it's really intertwined with what we are doing and with our work. As you were saying, we had our data protection officer in place since last year, but we have built in data protection in all our processes, meaning that the data protection, the data protection, sorry, officer is involved in all our work from the very beginning so that we are sure that we can tackle any privacy issues from the very beginning and that we can, we can sort it out.
And this is obviously in addition to the fact that with all our standards, meaning RTSs and guidelines, if there are privacy issues, we will be and we are engaging with the EDP, with the European Data Protection agencies to be sure that everything is okay also from the data protection standpoint.
Thank you. And on behalf of the Patriots, Ms. Győri, would you like to take the floor? Your colleague? Yes, please, you have the floor.
Tomáš Kubín
Thank you very much. I wasn't prepared. Madam Chair, I just don't want to ask you, but inform you and flag one signal from practice that I believe belongs in your level two preparation, which you named in, I think, in December as your 2026 priority. It's, it belongs in the, let's say, opposite side of the river. It means it's about the politically exposed persons, like politicians and so on.
The regime is exactly such a case. Since January, all of the EBA's AML and so on mandates have transferred to AMLA and existing EBA guidelines remain in force until AMLA replaces them. So the recital 98, 98 states that the requirements on politically exposed persons are preventive, not criminal in nature, and that refusing a business relationship simply because someone is PEP runs against the letter and the spirit of the regulation. The signals from practice point the other way. The blanket maximalist regime, no distinction between, let's say, head of state and local councillor or mayor, source of wealth documentation demanded for fully transparent public salaries, de-risking of entire families under Article 46, even closing bank accounts of kids, that's examples from practice.
Those bankers are simply pushing the envelope so they won't be held accountable by regulatory authorities for anything they did wrong eventually.
By the way, I have specific examples from banks, and that's they are not national banks, but banks operating throughout the European market. And I raise it now because Article 42(2b) obliges, makes you, AMLA, to issue guidelines by 10th of July 2027, if I'm not wrong, on the level of risk associated with particular category of politically exposed persons. That is precisely where this can either be corrected or cemented. It's also worth noting that the Article 43 lists are notified to you, not only to the Commission. I'll be glad to share concrete material with you, and I appreciate an indication of when you expect the draft of these guidelines.
Thank you very much.
Bruna Szego
So thank you very much for these questions. Okay, now the guidelines on the definition of PEPs is one of the guidelines that we are grouping, yeah, because those are linked to the more general risk factor guidelines in addition to some others, so that we are going to have a more comprehensive picture on risk factors. Frankly, I can't remember what the calendar is, but I can check it and tell you. I think there is a second point that you were raising, which is de-risking. De-risking is particularly important to tackle, and you know that AMLA is going to deliver, because it's already in the AMLA regulation, it's going to deliver joint guidelines with the EBA on that.
I think that we have already have quite some good guidelines that were issued by the EBA in 2023. And now, yeah, so we're starting that work with the EBA. EBA is taking a bit of a lead right now with a questionnaire that is aimed at assessing how does the, if there are loopholes in the current guidelines, what can be, what can be changed or needs to be changed. But definitely this is also quite an important and relevant issue that needs to be tackled as well.
Thank you. I do not see ECR representative in the room anymore. In that case, we continue with Renew, and I would like to invite Madame Keller to take the floor.
Fabienne Keller
Merci beaucoup, Madame la Présidente, je vais m'exprimer en français. Madame la Présidente, chère Bruna Szego, merci beaucoup de venir devant nous. La création de l'AMLA était indispensable. Le blanchiment de capitaux, le financement du terrorisme ne connaissent pas de frontières, alors que nos systèmes de supervision sont restés trop longtemps fragmentés entre les États membres. Votre premier rapport annuel montre l'ampleur du travail engagé, mais aussi tous les défis qui restent devant nous : des pratiques de supervision très différentes, des cellules de renseignement financier aux capacités inégales et des risques qui évoluent très vite.
Alors, c'est la première fois que pour ma part je vous revois après les auditions de nomination et je me réjouis de vous retrouver avec la même détermination, la même énergie et la même volonté de faire monter en puissance cette autorité qui est un une rotule, un élément central dans la lutte contre la criminalité. La criminalité financière mais aussi la criminalité tout court parce que celle-ci, que ce soit le terrorisme, le trafic d'êtres humains, le trafic de drogue a toujours un volet financier donc merci pour votre engagement. J'en arrive à mes questions, trois questions. La première, vous évoquez les 40 entités que vous allez devoir choisir, vous l'avez un peu commenté. J'ai une question, il y a un petit risque que vous vous concentriez sur les grands groupes, qu'il y ait un effet de taille.
Comment et donc que vous négligiez un petit peu des acteurs plus petits mais présentant des risques plus élevés, des sortes de signaux faibles d'émergence de risques. Je pense notamment au terrorisme mais à d'autres aussi, comment allez-vous assurer cet équilibre ? Deuxième question, vous évoquez dans votre rapport très très nourri votre attention bien sûr au secteur non financier, on pense tous aux crypto-monnaies. La directive MiCA va nous permettre un peu de mieux connaître les flux mais est-ce que vous pouvez nous donner plus de précisions sur votre action dans ce domaine ? Je rappelle que le Parlement a proposé une nouvelle ressource propre sur les crypto-monnaies donc c'est encore plus important de pouvoir connaître l'ampleur, de prendre des mesures, de voir aussi voilà quel est le développement des nouveaux acteurs dans ce domaine.
Dernière question en lien avec celle posée par ma collègue Birgit Sippel, c'est votre relation avec les autres agences et autorités. La question de la coopération avec Europol, EPPO, Eurojust. Est-ce que vous avez des échanges de personnel ? Est-ce que vous avez évoqué des accords de partenariat ? Mais est-ce que vous auriez aussi des équipes conjointes sur certains domaines qui vous permettraient d'être plus efficaces en ayant à la fois le volet criminalité et le volet financier ?
Je vous remercie et pardon Madame la Présidente.
Bruna Szego
Okay, so thank you, thank you very much for this question. Well, you know, the selection will be driven by a methodology which aimed at capturing, starting from, you know, cross-border entities operating in at least six member states. The methodology so so, you know, so the target is is by by design because and this is written in the AMLA regulation, it's not a question of how the model was designed, but it's a question of how the criteria were set in the AMLA regulation. First criteria is that you have to have financial institutions I mean, you have to select financial institutions that will be directly supervised by AMLA among a pool of of financial institutions that are operating at least in six member states. And of course in selecting those so so the target is is cross-border cross-border institutions.
Obviously the model is tailored in a way that is capturing whatever cross-border activity you are doing on the one hand, so whatever channel you're using for operating in member states. And and the way in which, coming to your questions around risky risky businesses, okay, the the the the way in which the group groups the group risk is assessed is defined in a way that risk components of groups are indeed captured.
So size of the component matters, but not only size, but also risk. And this is exactly because we want to be sure that we capture risk and that risk is not diluted, you know, within within within the group. Crypto. Well, yes, I was telling you before about about what our what our plan is that will be delivering. At the end of the day, you know, crypto asset service providers could be either under direct supervision of AMLA, okay, and this will allow us to have a very complete European picture of what the risks are and what they're doing, or they will be under indirect supervision from national authorities.
And here again, the fact that we are that they will be using a risk assessment methodology, a risk assessment model, a supervisory manual, a supervisory handbook that will make supervision uniform in Europe, I think will help a lot to be sure that we are able to spot where where the remaining risks risks are. On on staff exchange, yes, indeed, liaison officers will be, you know, the the way in which we see... Yeah, okay. Precisely. Yeah, that's it.
Liaison officers will be the response.
Thank you, and once again I apologize for interrupting you. Mr. Andrews, would you like to take the second question on behalf of the... thank you. Then I give floor to Mr. Antoci on behalf of the Left. Mr. Antoci, please, you have the floor.
Giuseppe Antoci
Grazie, grazie Presidente. Intanto grazie dottoressa Zego, grazie intanto per l'impegno di quest'anno, per questo rapporto serio con una visione chiara anche per il lavoro fatto sugli organici. Noi abbiamo assoluta contezza che per noi AMLA è fondamentale, importante anche per la lotta al crimine organizzato transnazionale, per quello che nella storia delle delle azioni delle delle mafie ha significato il riciclaggio e ha significato nelle strategie investigative anche, appunto, la collaborazione con le autorità. Ci ci avviciniamo in questi giorni alle commemorazioni della strage di via D'Amelio e l'uccisione del giudice Paolo Borsellino che insieme a Giovanni Falcone avevano ben chiare le idee su quanto questo settore era importante, significativo e strategico per la lotta alla criminalità organizzata. Detto questo, approfitto per farle una domanda.
Si parla dei dei prestatori di servizi per le cripto-attività e quindi anche con strumenti di analisi importanti come l'intelligenza artificiale.
E quello che mi chiedevo e le chiedo, come si possono integrare le tecnologie e anche ovviamente la sicurezza dei dati, la cooperazione operativa, i rapporti nei rapporti con gli accordi con Europol, Eurojust, l'OLAF, EPPO. Cioè come si può far questo ovviamente cercando di evitare le duplicazioni con il lavoro delle autorità nazionali e lei ha anche come dire l'esperienza forte in campo italiano del lavoro che anche le autorità nazionali svolgono su questo tema. Grazie.
Bruna Szego
Yeah. Okay, thank you, thank you Mr. Antoci for this question. Well, of course we're we're building our IT infrastructure in AMLA, which is quite relevant, important. IT needs in AMLA will be super relevant because we have three different areas to look at. We have the FIU pillar, we have the supervisory pillar and then we have the risk analysis.
All of this obviously need to have good IT solutions and advanced technology to to support the work. And so yeah, and of course we're we're have completed our strategic assessment on on our future IT infrastructure architecture and we're searching for and we're searching for solutions that find the right balance between between innovation on the one hand, digital sovereignty on the other and security and security on the top. In the meantime, when we are you know exchanging information with with law enforcement agencies or we're changing information with with the FIUs or with other actors, we must be absolutely fully sure that everything is secured. And this is why indeed security is on the top of our you know of our attention.
Marina Kaljurand
Thank you. That concludes our second round of questions and now we have two requests for catch the eye. I have three three requests for catch the eye. I'm sorry guys, okay four, but but then please limit your questions within one minute and in the end we take all the four questions and then you will have a couple of minutes to answer and to have the concluding remarks. So I will start with Mr. Hadjipantela, please you have the floor, one minute.
Michalis Hadjipantela
Yes. Thank you Chair, thank you for being here. Just want to make a remark. Okay, we're going to I have heard you very I have heard you mentioning how you will about the property how extremely risky is this area. I just want to make a remark.
I hope like we don't put extra burden on on couples or pensioners when they want to buy a property to have so so much administration that will make things extremely difficult. And my second question is, is there a way now through through AMLA to provide simplifications to European Union citizens or companies? For example, if they are if they provide KYC documents in one European Union bank, not to provide them the same documents in another bank. So we have simplification with your guidance. Thank you.
Martin Günther
Thank you. Mr. Günther, please.
Ja, mit dem Inkrafttreten der MiCA-Verordnung Markets in Crypto-Assets fällt auch die Kryptosektor zunehmend unter europäische Aufsicht. Gleichzeitig besteht bei digitalen Geld das Risiko, dass über dezentrale Finanzstrukturen weiterhin für Milliarden am Fiskus vorbeigeschleust werden, während Kleinsparer bei legitimen Transaktionen manchmal mit Kontosperrungen durch überforderte Bankenalgorithmen konfrontiert sind.
Wie plant die AMLA eine risikogerechte, scharfe Aufsicht über den Kryptosektor durchzusetzen, das hatte ich bisher noch nicht ganz verstanden, ohne dabei die finanzielle Teilhabe und die Rechte von normalen Verbraucherinnen und Verbrauchern durch fehlerhafte automatisierte Blockaden einzuschränken?
Caterina Chinnici
Grazie Presidente, grazie molte e grazie dottoressa Szajgo. Lei ci ha già parlato degli accordi di lavoro in corso di definizione fra AMLA, per parlarne in italiano, e dall'altro lato OLAF, EPPO, Europol, Eurojust, cioè le altre agenzie che, diciamo, lavorano in questo contesto. Però la progressiva entrata in funzione a pieno regime di AMLA, a cui lei sta lavorando e sta lavorando molto bene, coincide in realtà temporalmente con l'avvio del processo di revisione della complessiva architettura antifrode dell'Unione Europea di cui AMLA sarà ed è già, ma sarà sempre di più, uno dei componenti fondamentali. E allora io le chiedo come vede il ruolo, il contributo di AMLA in questo processo finalizzato a rendere appunto la prevenzione e la lotta alle frodi, che abbiamo sentito, l'hanno detto anche molti colleghi che mi hanno preceduto, sono purtroppo poste in essere da vere e proprie organizzazioni criminali, quindi come vede lei questo ruolo finalizzato proprio al rendere la prevenzione e la lotta alle frodi nell'Unione Europea sempre e sempre di più efficaci. Grazie.
Nikola Minchev
Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Szajgo, in the Anti-Money Laundering Authority report you underlined that authorities need better access to data and better tools to detect money laundering, especially in areas such as crypto assets and fast payments. This is understandable, criminals move quickly and institutions need to be able to follow the money. At the same time, the report also points to legal uncertainty around data protection and information sharing between national authorities, banks, and other actors involved in detecting suspicious transactions. For citizens, this raises a very simple concern.
How do we make sure that the fight against money laundering does not turn into mass monitoring of ordinary people's bank accounts and transactions? So my question is, how will AMLA ensure that expanded information sharing is targeted, proportionate, and focused on real risks, rather than creating a system where everyone is treated as a potential suspect? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Minchev. Ms. Szajgo, you have a couple of minutes to answer. I understand I'm putting you into a difficult position, but some of the questions have been addressed already earlier, so you can pick the ones that have not been addressed. Please, you have the floor, and also including final remarks.
Bruna Szego
Including final remarks? Including everything, in a couple of minutes, I know. A couple of minutes, okay. So, okay, I'll skip, sorry for that, I'll skip the questions on real estate because I think we already talked about it, but I'm available to talk to you bilaterally if something needs to be said. On working arrangements and on fraud, I think that you're pointing really at something that is really important.
We know that fraud is the third most important offense after drug trafficking and human trafficking. It's also, it's increasingly important because it's becoming digital, because it's becoming digital, because it's scalable, so it's quite convenient for criminals to put up fraud and scams. And I think that the recipe here is that there should be no silos in that.
No silos meaning that procedures and and and policies to combat and prevent and detect fraud should be consistent with the AML ones. For instance, now there is the the payment services regulation that has included some additional and some new anti-fraud checks. And I think that it will be important for us to talk with the EBA so that they are consistent with the AML one, we're not duplicating requirements. But cooperation here is of essence and the AF architecture is an example. Of course, we are here to play our part and and to do our best.
But I think that cooperation is not only between public authorities, it should be also between public and private. And this is and and so I think that private and public exchange of information through public-private partnerships will be really important also also to detect fraud. Exchange of information, I think the problem here is not too much exchange of information, but rather the opposite because of privacy reasons. And I think that we have to try to find the right balance between protecting privacy, but also ensuring that there is a good exchange of information. And this is, for instance, something that we are doing.
We are right now we are engaging with the European Data Protection Authorities, for instance, to deliver joint guidelines on private-public partnerships, which I think it's really important so that we get the right balance right.
Aurore Lalucq
Dear colleagues, please do respect just a couple of minutes to our speaker.
Bruna Szego
Okay, that's it. And I have a couple of words to say. Am I allowed to take two minutes of your time? Okay. So thank you, just to say thank you so much for your questions.
I hope that I've been able to address them and that I leave you today with a clear picture of of where we are. Since, you know, since I last appeared before you in December, we we indeed made many meaningful progresses because, yeah, we are building the authority, we are delivering substantive work. But I just also wanted to say that none of this would have been possible without the hard work of AMLA staff, whom I'd like to publicly thanks thanks. And the same holds true for the FIUs and national authorities. Okay, because their commitment is extends beyond the general board.
They are making resources available to AMLA and all of this is really, really key. Challenges, I think I've been candid about the challenges and about the fact that overcoming them will take time. And this is not something that AMLA can do alone. So I really do think that our success still continues to depend on close cooperation with all our partners. And most importantly with you, with this Parliament, to which I remain fully accountable.
AMLA will continue to invest in these relationship, to listen, to engage, so that together we can build an AML/CFT system which is in every part consistent and and effective. Thank you, thank you very much.
Aurore Lalucq
Thank you. Thank you so much, dear Bruna. Thank you to the Vice-Chair of the LIBE Committee. As you witnessed, there were a lot of questions. There were a lot of questions from the ECON and LIBE Committee because AMLA is very close to our heart and your mission is very important.
So thank you also to the AMLA staff. I mean, I think you made a quite a job in in one year and we have a lot of expectation and high expectation coming from you, a lot of pressure on your shoulders. But thank you so much for for today exchange of view. Thank you so much and thank you to all of you, to the Vice-Chair of the LIBE Committee and to the members of the LIBE Committee. Thank you.
Aurore Lalucq
So, dear colleagues, we will start today meeting with the adoption of the agenda. If there is no objection, the agenda is adopted. Interpretation is available today in 12 languages. The minutes of the meetings of April 8 and 9 and April 14 have been circulated. If there is no objection, the minutes are adopted.
Report on ongoing interinstitutional negotiation. The second trilogue on the securitisation package, which covers amendment to Capital Requirements Regulation and the Securitisation Regulation, was held on Tuesday, July 7. It focused on selected political topics in the Securitisation Regulation. This included due diligence and risk retention waivers where the first loss tranche is granted, sanction to institutional investor and funded credit protection and the undertaking for collective investment in transferable securities single issue investment limits. These topics were partly mandated to the technical level.
The next trilogue is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, September 29. The first trilogue on the single currency package, which covers the regulation on the establishment of digital euro, provision of digital euro services by payment services provider incorporated in Member States whose currency is not the euro and legal tender of euro banknotes and coins, was held on Monday, 13 July 2026. It focused on an exchange of views on the main political issues, inter alia legal tender and distribution of digital euro, limits to digital euro transaction and holdings, compensation model, AML, offline transaction and mandatory acceptance of cash and exception. There was no agreement yet on specific topics but main identified issues were delegated to the technical level. The next trilogue is scheduled to take place on September 10, 2026.
We now pass on to agenda item 5, the votes on the files which form part of the economic governance simplification package.
The rapporteurs are Markus Ferber and Carla Tavares, and we will start maybe with a test vote. The vote is open. And the vote is closed. Okay, everything is working well, so we will begin with the vote on the two provisional agreements resulting for the trilogue. We will first vote on the provisional agreement EU economic governance framework and further simplification of that framework by roll-call vote.
The vote is open. And I close the vote. And it is adopted with 42 in favor, 7 against, and 7 abstentions. Congratulations to the rapporteur. We will continue with the vote on the provisional agreement as regards the economic and budgetary surveillance of Member States in the euro area experiencing or threatened with serious difficulty with respect to their financial stability by roll-call vote.
I open the vote. And I close the vote. And it is adopted. Congratulations to the rapporteur. We will now continue with the vote on the third file, the draft recommendation as regards funding arrangements and the use of a diversified funding strategy by roll-call.
So I open the vote. And I close the vote. And it is adopted. Congratulations to the rapporteur. Okay, so we now pass onto agenda item 6 regarding the vote on the proposal for a regulation on non-financial commercial real estate statistics by showing of hands.
Compromise A: who is in favor? Who is against? Who abstains? Adopted. Compromise B: who is in favor?
Who is against? Who abstains? Adopted. Compromise C: who is in favor? Who is against?
Who abstains? Adopted. Compromise D: who is in favor? Who is against? Who abstains?
Adopted. And final vote by roll-call vote. I open the vote. And I close the vote. And it is adopted.
Congratulations to the rapporteur. Ah, we now vote on the mandate by roll-call vote. I open the vote. I close the vote. And the mandate is adopted.
Congratulations.
Item 7 regarding the vote on the draft recommendation on the draft Council decision on the conclusion on behalf of the European Union of the agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland regarding cooperation on the application of their competition laws. The rapporteur is Eero Heinäluoma. Okay, there is just one vote on the final vote by roll call vote. I open the vote. And I close the vote.
And it is adopted. Congratulations to the rapporteur. Item 8, the vote on the INI report on the global role of the euro. Rapporteur is Rasmus Andresen. By showing of hands, compromise A, who is in favor?
Who is against? Who abstains? Adopted. Compromise B, who is in favor? Who is against?
Who abstains? I need to check this. I open the vote. I close the vote. And it is adopted.
Compromise C, who is in favor? Who is against? Who abstains? Adopted. Compromise D, who is in favor?
Who is against? Who abstains? Adopted. Final vote by roll call. I open the vote.
I close the vote. Congratulations to the rapporteur. It is adopted. Now, item 9, the vote on the draft opinion in the form of a letter on the 28th regime proposal. This is a single vote following the procedure for opinion in the form of a letter.
The vote is open by roll call. I close the vote. And it is adopted. Now, item 10, the vote on the adoption of the ECON opinion on the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2027 by rapporteur Mr. Afteas. So, by showing of hands, compromise A, who is in favor?
Who is against? Who abstains? Adopted. Final vote by roll call. I open the vote.
And I close the vote. Adopted. Congratulations to the rapporteur. Petite majorité, hein. Okay.
See you this afternoon for the economic dialogue with the ECOFIN President.