The European Commission is today presenting an Action Plan to strengthen the fight against the financing of terrorism.
The recent terrorist attacks in the European Union and beyond demonstrate the need for a strong coordinated European response to combatting terrorism. The European Agenda for Security had identified a number of areas to improve the fight against terrorist financing. Today's comprehensive Action Plan will deliver a strong and swift response to the current challenges, building on existing EU rules and complementing them where necessary. Through concrete measures, it will adapt or propose additional rules to deal with new threats.
First Vice-President Frans Timmermans, said: “We have to cut off the resources that terrorists use to carry out their heinous crimes. By detecting and disrupting the financing of terrorist networks, we can reduce their ability to travel, to buy weapons and explosives, to plot attacks and to spread hate and fear online. In the coming months the Commission will update and develop EU rules and tools through well-designed measures to tackle emerging threats and help national authorities to step up the fight against terrorist financing and cooperate better, in full respect of fundamental rights. It's crucial that we work together on terrorist financing to deliver results and protect European citizens' security”
Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, in charge of the Euro and Social Dialogue, said: "With today's Action Plan we are moving swiftly to clamp down on terrorist financing, starting with legislative proposals in the coming months. We must cut offterrorists' access to funds, enable authorities to better track financial flows to prevent devastating attacks such as those in Paris last year, and ensure that money laundering and terrorist financing is sanctioned in all Member States. We want to improve the oversight of the many financial means used by terrorists, from cash and cultural artefacts to virtual currencies and anonymous pre-paid cards, while avoiding unnecessary obstacles to the functioning of payments and financial markets for ordinary, law-abiding citizens."
The Action Plan will focus on two main strands of action:
Tracing terrorists through financial movements and preventing them from moving funds or other assets;
Disrupting the sources of revenue used by terrorist organisations, by targeting their capacity to raise funds.