The New EU Draft Money Laundering Directive: A Case of Inter‐Institutional Synergy

Abstract

Seen as one of the major international instruments in the fight against organised crime, the 1991 Money Laundering Directive 91/308/EEC has been the EU's main weapon in its endeavours to ensure that the liberalisation of the financial markets and the consequent freedom of capital movements ‘… is not used for undesirable purposes, such as money laundering’. However, in view of changes in the 1990s at the national and EU levels and in the international environment, the 1991 directive is no longer considered an effective and adequate legislative instrument in the field of money laundering. The legislative response of the EU to these changes is the Draft Money Laundering Directive which has recently been put forward by the Commission and has been — somewhat unexpectedly — wholeheartedly supported by both the Council and the European Parliament (EP).