03/12/2012 President
Strasbourg, 03.12.2012 – In his address to the members of MONEYVAL, the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures and the Financing of Terrorism, today in Strasbourg, Jean-Claude Mignon, President of PACE, underlined what PACE and national parliaments could do to support the committee’s action.
“Clearly, when the implementation of MONEYVAL recommendations calls for changes in legislation, it is for national parliaments to pass new laws or amend existing ones. It is important, therefore, to ensure that parliamentarians are aware of MONEYVAL’s reports and the recommendations made, and are conversant with the standards on which those evaluations are based,” he said. He called for the systematic participation of a PACE representative in MONEYVAL meetings, a possibility that is already provided for in a statutory Resolution of the committee.
The President believes that the key role here lies with the members of the national delegations to PACE, who should systematically inform the chairs of the relevant national parliamentary committees about reports in preparation and reports already published. “Consideration might be given to the possibility of holding parliamentary hearings attended by government officials and experts, including MONEYVAL experts, to present the evaluators’ findings to parliamentarians. This would allow better expert input at the early stages of drafting bills and legislative proposals designed to remedy the shortcomings found by MONEYVAL in its reports,” he said.