Alfred Sant has voted in the European Parliament in favour of giving powers to an independent EU agency for anti-money laundering supervision with a single rulebook as a truly effective way to tackle cross-border illegal activities.

In an explanation of vote, Alfred Sant stressed that the prerogatives of such an agency would need to be implemented in the same way everywhere, with equivalent approaches for all credit institutions across Member States. Only a truly impartial EU body could preserve the integrity of the EU financial system.

The vote was held during a plenary session in the European Parliament that discussed Banking Union in the EU, the transfer of responsibility for banking policy from the national to the EU level in Member States, initiated in 2012 as a response to the Eurozone crisis.

Through a vote on the Banking Union annual report for 2019, the European Parliament is addressing the challenges of the Banking Union: its completion, BREXIT as well as supervision issues, among others. 

As is frequently acknowledged, an increasingly convergent and stable economic and monetary Union requires a solid Banking Union. Despite progress towards a single banking policy in the euro area, the Banking Union project has stagnated for years.

“It is still early to say, but the current pandemic crisis might highlight the risks posed by its incompletion and the differences in regimes across the EU could create significant vulnerabilities”, stated Alfred Sant. 

The report also addresses deep running consumer issues. EU citizens are confronted by obscure and unfair commercial practices and the interests of vulnerable groups are frequently ignored. The COVID-19 pandemic could exacerbate such aspects with the reduction of banking services to small clients.