BRUSSELS: The US Treasury said on Wednesday it had "significant concerns" about the substance of a European Union Commission proposal to put 23 non-EU countries and terrirorities on a money laundering and terrorist financing blacklist.
The list of countries, which includes Ƶ, was released on Tuesday and names states the EU Commission believes to pose a high risk when it comes to money laundering or funding terrorist activities.
A US Treasury statement said that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is the global standard-setting body for combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing.
The statement said the FATF, which includes the US, the European Commission, 15 EU member states, and 20 other jurisdictions, already develops a list of high-risk countries as part of a careful and comprehensive process.
The US treasury said the EU commission had not given the countries concerned sufficient time to discuss regulations, adding that it did not expect the US financial institutions to take the EU list into account in their policies and procedures.
EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova said on Wednesday that the list, which also named countries like North Korea and Nigeria, will be used to increase checks and investigations on financial operations to find any "suspicious money flows."
Jourova said that "we have to make sure that dirty money from other countries does not find its way to our financial system." She said that "Europe cannot be a laundromat for dirty money."
The European Parliament and the member states must now approve the list over the next weeks.
