EU committee concludes 18-month into 'Panama Papers' leaks
Some EU members are obstructing the fight against money laundering, tax avoidance and evasion. That is the conclusion of the European Parliament committee of inquiry into the ‘Panama Papers’ leaks.
It has approved its final report after an 18-month probe.
MEPs pointed to a “lack of political will among some member states to advance on reforms and enforcement.” As a result of this, they suggested, fraud and tax evasion had been allowed to continue.
“I can imagine that after a couple of years some governments will investigate more strictly these – let’s say – problems. The basic problem here is that many activities are not illegal,” said Gyorgy Schopflin, an Hungarian MEP.
There was a minute’s silence ahead of the committee meeting for Daphne Caruana Galizia, the Maltese investigative journalist killed in a car bomb on Monday. She had given evidence about her work on the Panama Papers.
“We were able to better understand the way that everything happens, also in some particular countries. You could talk about Malta where this week a journalist was killed, murdered because she was investigating crimes related to the Panama Papers,” said Nuno Melo, a Portugese MEP.