Most EU countries are yet to put in place efficient beneficial ownership registers as instructed by the Global Witness. About 5 out of the 24 countries have completed the reform process, and another 5 have partially implemented them. The Global Witness gave the instruction in a report, as a measure to fight money laundering and other illicit transactions. However, some countries known to be vulnerable in Golden Visa programs are yet to comply, hence, giving criminals easy access to launder money in the EU states. Besides the Global Witness directive, SchengenVisaInfo.com also noted in a report last year that the European Parliament encouraged EU states to take drastic actions to stop the scheme. Cyprus, Portugal, Malta, and Spain received the most criticism in their Golden Visa Programmes.
Despite persuasive efforts to ensure the implementation of actions developed to facilitate transparency and reveal the real identities of the owners of companies based in EU states, there seems to be no progress. States who have adopted the reforms are yet to make them accessible to the public. The reforms included publicly accessible beneficial ownership registers; by publicly, it means anyone can access the registers at any time to check financial activities of corrupt politicians and other criminals.
