Money laundering high-risk country list turns into a political plaything

PRESS RELEASE
Strasbourg, 9 July 2025

Money laundering high-risk country list turns into a political plaything

The EU Parliament today approved the Commission’s delegated act updating the list of high-risk countries for money laundering. This list identifies states considered insufficiently cooperative in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

Rasmus Andresen, member of the ECON Committee, commented:

“It is a fatal signal that after the Commission, Parliament now also yields to geopolitical pressure and removes countries that continue to pose a money laundering risk to the EU. The UAE has made insufficient progress in establishing safeguards against money laundering and terrorist financing. It serves as a financial hub for criminals from the EU, continues to facilitate gold smuggling from conflict zones such as Sudan, and forms the basis of a crypto-to-cash network used by Russian oligarchs. The European Commission was unable to guarantee before the vote what improvements the UAE had committed to and how any review would be conducted.

Three years after the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, it is hardly understandable that Russia is still not on the list. The European Commission has assured, under pressure from the European Parliament, that Russia’s inclusion on the money laundering list will be reviewed. Now action must follow.”