Last week, Investigative Journalist Maria @pevchikh posted this excellent thread on a recent ruling by @EUCourtPress, which may help shady organisations hide or launder money in the European Union. #transparency #CJEU It's vital we fix this
THREAD 🧵⬇️: (1/6)
RT @pevchikh: 1/20 Dear friends, I need to draw your attention to something super bad and super important (and it doesn’t originate from Russia for once). Last week the EU has taken a shockingly stupid and dam…
🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/i/web/status/1599801073081778180
First, a little context: The @EUCourtPress ruling invalidates a part of Anti-money laundering Directive, #AMLD which requests companies to declare their "beneficial owner" (person who profits from and controls the company). Up until now, this information was public ⬇️(2/6)
🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/i/web/status/1599801075795906560
This information being public allowed journalists and activists to uncover shady practices incl. 💰 #moneylaundering and #taxevasion, and shed light on hidden business empires of Russian Oligarchs in Europe.
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🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/i/web/status/1599801078144303104
EU laws are subject to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, which lists citizens' rights, including the protection of personal data. In this case, the court found that making this data accessible to everyone with no conditions violates the privacy of business owners.
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🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/i/web/status/1599801080271228930
For the sake of transparency, it is important that we work out how to solve this issue as quickly as possible, so this week I wrote to the European Commission to ask them how they intend to address the issue.
You can find it on my blog on link below (6/6)
https://karenmelchior.eu/en/how-will-the-commission-respond-to-a-court-ruling-that-makes-it-harder-to-investigate-money-laundering-tax-evasion/
🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/i/web/status/1599801084339290114
However the court did note that access to this information is vital, but rather that access should be somehow limited. This means we may need to make changes to the law so that it complies with the court's ruling but still guarantees access to those who need it.
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🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/i/web/status/1599801082321829892