The European Commission (EC) has referred Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands to the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU). It has requested the Court to impose financial sanctions on these Member States for incomplete implementation of the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD4) into their national law.
The incomplete integration affects some key aspects of the AML framework of these Member States. These include the gambling legislation (Austria), information exchange mechanisms for Financial Intelligence Units (Belgium), and the beneficial ownership information (Netherlands).
The EC required all its Member States to implement AMLD4 by 26 June 2017. None of the Member States managed to completely incorporate the rules of the AMLD4 by this deadline. Consequently, the Commission took forth infringement proceedings against all Member States. It should be noted that three other Member States have previously received Reasoned Opinions over incomplete integration of AMLD4. Moreover, proceedings against two other Member States are pending before the Court.
