Saudi Arabia Scores a Big Win on Dirty Money
The EU member states’ decision to reject a money-laundering and terror financing blacklist leaves Europe looking weak and muddled.
Lucrative arms contracts are one reason why Europe wants to keep Riyadh happy.
Photographer: Karim Sahib/AFP
The fight against money-laundering and terrorism financing should be one thing all the EU’s 28 member states can agree on. Yet the only unity on show has been their total opposition to a dirty-money blacklist proposed by the European Commission, which sparked a diplomatic ruckus by including Saudi Arabia and some U.S. offshore territories. On Thursday, EU members rejected the list in its present shape. The climbdown — after pressure from Riyadh — leaves Europe looking weak and muddled.
The objection was that the process of drawing up the list wasn’t transparent. But it’s hard to really separate the technical issues from the political ones, not least because the process has been in full public view for the last two years. The blacklist may have had its flaws, and the EU clearly needs to get its own house in order after a string of banking scandals linked to the Baltic states, but this is a bad signal to send to the world.