Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

EU Measures to Combat Terrorist Financing

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Criminal and Terrorism Financing Law

Abstract

This chapter offers a critical assessment of the post-9/11 efforts of the European Union (EU) in the fight against terrorist finances. Using the EU’s own goals from its action plans and counterterrorism strategies as the baseline criteria, it examines how successful has the EU been in implementing the relevant aspects of various United Nations Security Council counterterrorism resolutions, the special recommendations of Financial Action Task Force and its own measures spanning across all of its three pre-Lisbon pillars.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 299.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Council of the European Union, ‘Revised Strategy on Terrorist Financing’ 11,778/1/08 REV 1 (2008).

  2. 2.

    Council of the European Union, ‘The Fight Against Terrorist Financing’ 16,089/04 (2004).

  3. 3.

    Thomas Biersteker and Sue Eckert, Countering the Financing of Terrorism (Routledge 2007) 1.

  4. 4.

    Laura Donohue, The Cost of Counterterrorism: Power, Politics, and Liberty (CUP 2008) 122.

  5. 5.

    Biersteker and Eckert (n 3) 2.

  6. 6.

    See further Chap. 14 (Ferwerda) in this collection.

  7. 7.

    See David Cortright and George Lopez, Smart Sanctions: Targeting Economic Statecraft (Rowman & Littlefield 2002).

  8. 8.

    For further information on these two models, see Oldrich Bures, EU Counterterrorism Policy: A Paper Tiger? (Ashgate 2011). In this collection, see Chap. 3 (Bergstrom). See further Christina Eckes, EU Counter-Terrorist Policies and Fundamental Rights: The Case of Individual Sanctions (OUP 2009); Cian Murphy, EU Counter-Terrorism Law (Hart Publishing 2013); Iain Cameron (ed), EU Sanctions (Intersentia 2013).

  9. 9.

    Council of the European Union (n 2) 3.

  10. 10.

    Marc Parker and Max Taylor, ‘Financial Intelligence: A Price Worth Paying?’ (2010) 33(11) Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 949, 949.

  11. 11.

    Council Common Position 2001/931/CFSP of 27 December 2001 on the Application of Specific Measures to Combat Terrorism [2001] OJ L344/93.

  12. 12.

    Council Regulation (EC) 2580/2001 of 27 December 2001 on Specific Restrictive Measures Directed Against Certain Persons and Entities with a View to Combating Terrorism [2001] OJ L344/70.

  13. 13.

    Council Common Position 1999/727/CFSP of 15 November 1999 Concerning Restrictive Measures Against the Taliban [1999] OJ L294/1; Council Common Position 2001/154/CFSP of 26 February 2001 Concerning Additional Restrictive Measures Against the Taliban and amending Common Position 96/746/CFSP [2001] OJ L57/1; Council Common Position 2002/402/CFSP of 27 May 2002 Concerning Restrictive Measures Against Osama Bin Laden, Members of the al-Qaeda Organization and the Taliban and Other Individuals, Groups, Undertakings and Entities Associated with Them and repealing Common Positions 96/746/CFSP, 1999/727/CFSP, 2001/154/CFSP and 2001/771/CFSP [2002] OJ L139/4.

  14. 14.

    See Martin Nettesheim, ‘U.N. Sanctions Against Individuals—A Challenge to the Architecture of European Union Governance’ (2007) 44(3) Common Market Law Review 567.

  15. 15.

    Council Decision 2016/1693/CFSP of 20 September 2016 concerning restrictive measures against ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaeda and persons, groups, undertakings and entities associated with them and repealing Common Position 2002/402/CFSP [2016] OJ L255/25; Council Regulation (EU) 2016/1686 of 20 September 2016 imposing additional restrictive measures directed against ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaeda and natural and legal persons, entities or bodies associated with them [2016] OJ L255/1.

  16. 16.

    The FIU is to serve as a national centre for receiving, requesting, analysing and disseminating suspicious transaction reports and other information regarding potential money laundering or terrorist financing. As transnational exchange of intelligence is crucial, the FIUs of many states have formed an informal network, the Egmont Group, which acts as a clearing house for this. See <www.egmontgroup.org> accessed 17 July 2017. The FIUs in EU MSs are also linked through a computer network (FIU.NET), which is partly funded by the Commission. For further discussion of FIUs, see Chap. 27 (Amicelle and Chaudieu) in this collection.

  17. 17.

    These were consolidated in 2012 <www.fatf-gafi.org/publications/fatfrecommendations/documents/fatf-recom mendations.html> accessed 17 July 2017. Due to the divided legislative competence between the EU and MSs, FATF’s SRs VII and IX had to be promulgated in the form of a regulation.

  18. 18.

    Mara Wesseling, Evaluation of EU Measures to Combat Terrorist Financing (Directorate General for Internal Policies 2014).

  19. 19.

    Commission, ‘Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on an Action Plan for Strengthening the Fight against Terrorist Financing’ COM (2016) 50.

  20. 20.

    Council of the European Union, ‘Proposed Amendments to the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive’ (2016).

  21. 21.

    Commission, ‘Final Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on Combating Terrorism and Replacing Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA on Combating Terrorism’ COM (2015) 625.

  22. 22.

    Ibid. 6.

  23. 23.

    Council of the European Union, ‘Action Plan on Combating Terrorism’ 15,893/1/10 EU (2011). The controversy is primarily due to the fact that the US authorities had previously been secretly using information on European transactions from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift). This Belgium-based company, which records international transactions worth trillions of dollars daily, between nearly 8000 financial institutions in over 200 countries, used to keep one of its databases on US territory until January 2010, thus giving Washington a legal handle on its global activities.

  24. 24.

    Commission (n 19) Final 11.

  25. 25.

    Council of the European Union (n 1) 9.

  26. 26.

    Council of the European Union, ‘Conclusions and Plan of Action of the Extraordinary European Council Meeting on 21 September 2001’ (2001).

  27. 27.

    Council of the European Union, ‘European Counter Terrorism Strategy’ (2005).

  28. 28.

    See <www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/fight-against-terrorism/counter-terrorism-coordinator/> accessed 17 July 2017.

  29. 29.

    Dorine Dubois, ‘The Attacks of 11 September: EU-US Cooperation Against Terrorism in the Field of Justice and Home Affairs’ (2002) 7(3) European Foreign Affairs Review 317, 323.

  30. 30.

    Elspeth Guild, ‘The Uses and Abuses of Counter-Terrorism Policies in Europe: The Case of the ‘Terrorist Lists’ (2008) 46(1) Journal of Common Market Studies 173, 180.

  31. 31.

    William Vlcek, ‘Acts to Combat the Financing of Terrorism: Common Foreign and Security Policy at the European Court of Justice’ (2006) 11(4) European Foreign Affairs Review 491, 505.

  32. 32.

    Joined Cases C-402/05 P and C-415/05 P Yassin Abdullah Kadi, Al Barakaat International Foundation v Council of the European Union, Commission of the European Communities, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [2008] ECR I-06351. This was followed by several follow-up Kadi cases in 2013—Joined Cases C-584/10 P, C-593/10 P and C-595/10 P European Commission and others v Yassin Abdullah Kadi [2013] ECR II-518. See Karen Cooper and Clive Walker, ‘Heroic or Hapless? The Legal Reforms of Counter-Terrorism Financial Sanctions Regimes in the European Union’ in Federico Fabbrini and Vicki Jackson (eds), Constitutionalism Across Borders in the Struggle against Terrorism (Edward Elgar Publishing 2016).

  33. 33.

    See Chap. 37 (Prost) in this collection.

  34. 34.

    Henri Labayle and Nadya Long, Overview of European and International Legislation on Terrorist Financing (Policy Department C, Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs, European Parliament 2009) 43–44.

  35. 35.

    Mikael Eriksson, In Search of a Due Process: Listing and Delisting Practices of the European Union (Uppsala University 2009) 37.

  36. 36.

    Council of the European Union (n 23) 26–27.

  37. 37.

    Council (n 11).

  38. 38.

    John Howell and others, Independent Scrutiny: The EU’s Efforts in the Fight Against Terrorist Financing in the Context of the Financial Action Task Force’s Nine Special Recommendations and the EU Counter Terrorist Financing Strategy (Report ordered by DG Justice, Freedom and Security, European Commission 2007) 28. Since the adoption of Council Decision 2016/1693 (n 15) however, assets of EU citizens can be frozen at the EU level.

  39. 39.

    Ibid. 28.

  40. 40.

    Ibid. 22–23.

  41. 41.

    Ibid. 42.

  42. 42.

    See Friedrich Schneider and Paul Caruso ‘The (Hidden) Financial Flows of Terrorist and Transnational Crime Organizations: A Literature Review and Some Preliminary Empirical Results’ (2011) 52 Economics of Security Working Paper 1.

  43. 43.

    House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs, The Impact of Economic Sanctions. Volume II: Evidence (2006–2007 HL 96) ‘Memorandum by Professor Peter Fitzgerald, Stetson University College of Law’ 149.

  44. 44.

    Nikos Passas, ‘Setting Global CFT Standards: A Critique and Suggestions’ (2006) 9(3) Journal of Money Laundering Control 281, 283.

  45. 45.

    House of Lords (n 43) 156.

  46. 46.

    Cited in The Economist, ‘Getting to Them Through Their Money’ The Economist (London 27 September 2001).

  47. 47.

    William Vlcek, ‘Securitization Beyond Borders: Exceptionalism Inside the EU and Impact on Policing Beyond Borders European Measures to Combat Terrorist Financing and the Tension Between Liberty and Security’ (2005) Challenge Working Paper Work Package 2.

  48. 48.

    Iain Cameron, ‘Terrorist Financing in International Law’ in Ilias Bantekas and Giannis Keramidas (eds), International and European Financial Criminal Law (Butterworths 2006) 81.

  49. 49.

    House of Lords (n 43) 150.

  50. 50.

    Council of the European Union, ‘Report on the Implementation of the Revised Strategy on Terrorist Financing’ 10,182/10 (2010).

  51. 51.

    Ibid. 5.

  52. 52.

    Howell and others (n 38) 22.

  53. 53.

    Ibid. 24.

  54. 54.

    Björn Müller-Wille, ‘For Our Eyes Only? Shaping an Intelligence Community within the EU’ (2004) 50 Occasional Papers.

  55. 55.

    Bures (n 8).

  56. 56.

    See Council (n 11).

  57. 57.

    Judgment of the Court of First Instance in Case T-228/02 Organisation des Modjahedines du peuple d’Iran v Council on December 12, 2006, followed by judgments in related follow-up cases T-256/07, T-284/08, and C-27/09 P.

  58. 58.

    Council of the European Union 8425/07 (Presse 80), Press Release—2795th/2796th General Relations and External Affairs Council Meeting, Luxembourg, 23–24 April 2007 (2007).

  59. 59.

    Established in September 2002, the Clearing House was the original EU platform for listing and delisting issues. Since March 2005, its primary role had been to discuss and advise the Council about what persons and entities to list and delist. Eriksson (n 35) 28–30. The CP 931 Working Party has now been subsumed into the COMET WP: Council of the European Union, ‘Fight against the financing of terrorism: Establishment of a Council Working Party on restrictive measures to combat terrorism’ (COMET) 14,612/16 (2016).

  60. 60.

    Ibid. 39.

  61. 61.

    Ibid. 40.

  62. 62.

    Ian Cameron, Respecting Human Rights and Fundamentals Freedoms and EU/UN Sanctions: State of Play. Study prepared for the Subcommittee on Human Rights, European Parliament (October 2008) 43.

  63. 63.

    Elspeth Guild and Florian Geyer, Security Versus Justice: Police and Judicial Cooperation in the European Union (Ashgate 2008).

  64. 64.

    Didier Bigo, Sergio Carrera and Elspeth Guild, ‘The Challenge Project: Final Policy Recommendations on the Changing Landscape of European Liberty and Security’ (2009).

  65. 65.

    Cases T-400/10 and C-79/15 P Council v Hamas. Joined Cases T-208/11 and T-508/11, and case C-599/14 P Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) v Council of the European Union.

  66. 66.

    Michael Brzoska, ‘The Role of Effectiveness and Efficiency in the European Union’s Counterterrorism Policy: The Case of Terrorist Financing’ 51 (2011) Economics of Security 1.

  67. 67.

    Edward Alden, ‘Europe Freezes Terrorist Assets Worth $35 Million’ The Financial Times (Washington, 8 April 2002) <https://web.archive.org/web/20020614020345/http://specials.ft.com/attackonterrorism/FT39YWK5 SZC.html> accessed 17 July 2017.

  68. 68.

    Robert Wielaard, ‘EU Proposes Terrorist Database Following Madrid Bombings, Criticizes Foot-Dragging Since Sept. 11’ Associated Press (18 March 2004) <http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/world/2004-03-19-eu-terror-db_x.htm> accessed 17 July 2017.

  69. 69.

    US Department of the Treasury, ‘Treasury Announces Joint Action with Saudi Arabia against Four Branches of Al-Haramain in the Fight Against Terrorist Financing’ JS-1108 (2004).

  70. 70.

    Jimmy Gurulé, ‘Locking Down Terrorist Finance’ Public Lecture at University of Notre Dame (5 April 2004).

  71. 71.

    Council of the European Union (n 2) 2.

  72. 72.

    Ibid. 3.

  73. 73.

    Cited in Laurence Thieux, ‘European Security and Global Terrorism: The Strategic Aftermath of the Madrid Bombings’ (2004) 22 Perspectives: The Central European Review of International Affairs 59, 62.

  74. 74.

    UN Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team, ‘First Report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team Appointed Pursuant to Resolution 1526 (2004) Concerning Al-Qaida and the Taliban and Associated Individuals and Entities’ S/2004/679 (2004) para 45.

  75. 75.

    Ibid.

  76. 76.

    2005–2006 HC 1087.

  77. 77.

    Kathryn Gardner, ‘Terrorism Defanged: The Financial Action Task Force and International Efforts to Capture Terrorist Finances’ in David Cortright and George Lopez (eds), Uniting Against Terror: Cooperative Nonmilitary Responses to the Global Terrorist Threat (MIT Press 2007) 157.

  78. 78.

    Loretta Napoleoni, ‘Terrorism Financing in Europe’ in Jeanne Giraldo and Harold Trinkunas (eds), Terrorism Financing and State Responses: A Comparative Perspective (Stanford University Press 2007) 171, 176.

  79. 79.

    Donohue (n 4) 128.

  80. 80.

    Mark White cited in Biersteker and Eckert (n 3) note 13.

  81. 81.

    Al Qaeda, for example, spends only about 10% on operational costs. Biersteker and Eckert (n 3) 8.

  82. 82.

    Cited in Biersteker and Eckert (n 3) 8.

  83. 83.

    Oldrich Bures, ‘Public-Private Partnerships in the Fight against Terrorism?’ (2013) 60(4) Crime, Law and Social Change 429.

  84. 84.

    CTF measure have to be implemented by private financial organizations such as banks, insurance and investment companies, as well as certain non-financial organizations such as lawyers, guarding companies or casinos and dealers in high-value goods.

  85. 85.

    Also in case of the other EU MSs, ‘the number of suspicious transactions specifically for TF [terrorist financing] varies across MS, but is generally very limited, if present at all’. Howell and others (n 38) 28.

  86. 86.

    Cited in Vlcek (n 47) 13.

  87. 87.

    Elõd Takats, ‘A Theory of Crying Wolf: The Economics of Money Laundering Enforcement’ (2007) 07/81 IMF Working Paper 4.

  88. 88.

    Ibid. 21–22.

  89. 89.

    Brigitte Unger and others, ‘The Economic and Legal Effectiveness of Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorist Financing Policy’ (Utrecht University 2013) Final ECOLEF report JLS/2009/ISEC/AG/087253.

  90. 90.

    Ibid. 502, 506. However, according to Peter Sproat, ‘Counter-terrorist Finance in the UK: A Quantitative and Qualitative Commentary Based on Open-source Materials’ (2010) 13(4) Journal of Money Laundering Control 315: ‘at least ten individuals [have been] convicted of a CTF offence’ in the United Kingdom since September 2001.

  91. 91.

    The other six EU Member States reported between 132 and 906 cases for 2008. Only in the case of Germany, where all STRs are legally bound to result in the initiation of criminal proceedings, the number exceeded 1000 cases (7349 in 2008). Cynthia Tavares, Geoffrey Thomas and Mickael Roudaut, ‘Eurostat Methodologies and Working Paper—Money Laundering in Europe: Report of Work Carried Out by Eurostat and DG Home Affairs’ European Commission (2010).

  92. 92.

    Cameron (n 48) 105.

  93. 93.

    Wesseling (n 18).

  94. 94.

    For example the unintended, yet possible life or death impacts of CTF measures on the flow of remittances or the work of charities. See Jeroen Gunning, ‘Terrorism, Charities, and Diasporas: Contrasting the Fundraising Practises of Hamas and al Qaeda among Muslims in Europe’ in Biersteker and Eckert (n 3).

  95. 95.

    Bala Shanmugam, ‘Hawala and Money Laundering: A Malaysian Perspective’ (2004) 8(1) Journal of Money Laundering Control 37, 16.

  96. 96.

    Passas (n 44) 284.

  97. 97.

    Vlcek (n 47) 17. See further Chap. 11 (Ramachandran, Collin and Juden) in this collection.

  98. 98.

    Council of the European Union (n 27).

  99. 99.

    Commission, ‘European Parliament Backs Stronger Rules to Combat Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing’ Press Release IP/15/5001 (2015).

  100. 100.

    Commission (n 19) Final.

  101. 101.

    Howell and others (n 38) 39.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Metropolitan University Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

    Oldrich Bures

Authors
  1. Oldrich Bures
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sussex, Falmer, United Kingdom

    Colin King

  2. University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom

    Clive Walker

  3. Notre Dame Law School, Notre Dame, IN, USA

    Jimmy Gurulé

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Bures, O. (2018). EU Measures to Combat Terrorist Financing. In: King, C., Walker, C., Gurulé, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Criminal and Terrorism Financing Law. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64498-1_35

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64498-1_35

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-64497-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-64498-1

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation