Access to financial data by law enforcement authorities

Briefing 25-06-2018

Groups committing serious crimes, including terrorists, often operate cross-border and their funds are usually located across the EU Member States or outside of the EU. The Commission proposal aims to improve the sharing financial information among national law enforcement authorities and financial intelligence units to prevent and fight crime and terrorism. The impact assessment accompanying the proposal examined comprehensively the problems encountered by law enforcement authorities and financial intelligence units, and made a real attempt to analyse the impacts of the proposed measures. A more thorough analysis of the safeguards on fundamental rights would have been useful. The Commission admits that the calculations of costs and benefits were limited due to a lack of data. Finally, the overall preferred option remains unclear.