The plenary session of the Expert Committee of the Council of Europe to combat money laundering, or Moneyval, began today in Strasbourg, and on the agenda this week will be BiH, Smair Omerhodzic, member of BiH’s delegation to the body, confirmed for Patria.
Namely, it is expected that Moneyval will sanction our country for ending the law on preventing money laundering and terrorist activities in the BiH Parliament several weeks ago.
Omerhodzic, as he told us, has no further details connected with this, but he is certain that this issue will be on the agenda. The session runs the entire week.
“On Friday we expect a final decision on BiH. I cannot assume what the decision will be, but certainly there is dissatisfaction with the failure to adopt the law,” said Omerhodzic, adding that he does not know the terms of debate.
From the EU Delegation in Sarajevo, they tell us also that the session began and that a declaration on BiH is expected. Earlier it was learned that the EU demands that a new law be adopted that would bring BiH in line with international standards in the fight against money laundering.
But RS delegates broke the law, and BiH is threatened with international sanctions and being blacklisted with Iran and North Korea. A spokesman for the EU Delegation, Andy McGuffie, said earlier that failure to pass the law would have serious consequences.
“BiH would not have an effective system for combatting money laundering and terrorism financing, and it would call into question the fulfillment of obligations toward Moneyval and the IMF. Therefore, it is extremely important that BiH could find itself under significant financial pressure, for example banks and other financial institutions in BiH would face difficulties in transferring money around the world. All currency transactions in and out of BiH would be vigilantly monitored by financial institutions in other countries, which would lead to serious delays in financial transactions. This would, for example, delay remittances from abroad. At the same time, due to delays in financial transactions, potential investors would be looking for other destinations to invest in. Others would not even consider the possibility of investing in BiH, and from such a blow it would be difficult for the country’s reputation to recover,” said McGuffie. (Oslobodjenje, NAP)
