European Commission 2 February 2016, COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on an Action Plan for strengthening the fight against terrorist financing

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This European Commission Communication (COM(2016) 50 final, 2 February 2016) sets out an Action Plan to strengthen the fight against terrorist financing through two principal strands: (1) detecting and preventing the movement of terrorist funds, including proposed amendments to the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD) to address virtual currency exchange platforms, prepaid instruments, centralised bank account registers, and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) cooperation; and (2) disrupting sources of terrorist revenue, including legislative proposals on illicit cash movements, money laundering criminal offences and sanctions, customs powers, and illicit trade in cultural goods. The plan further calls on Member States to accelerate transposition of the 4th AMLD by the fourth quarter of 2016 and provides for enhanced EU-UN coordination on asset freezing, an assessment of an EU autonomous asset-freezing regime under Article 75 TFEU, and external technical assistance to third countries in the MENA and South East Asia regions. All legislative proposals are subject to impact assessments with due regard to fundamental rights, including data protection, and economic freedoms.AI