The Council of Europe has been supporting the Slovak Republic in the development of an AML/CFT National Strategy and in the improvement of the current Strategic Principles and AML/CFT National Action Plan.
Towards that objective, an online preparatory meeting was held with the Slovak authorities aiming at clarifying the national context and beneficiaries’ expectations. The discussions informed two Technical Papers, one providing guidelines to the development of the AML/CFT National Strategy and reviewing the AML/CFT Strategic Principles of the Slovak Republic and another Technical Paper reviewing the current National Action Plan and approaching the National Coordination Mechanisms in place.
Following the finalisation of both Technical Papers, an online workshop was organised on 9 June 2022, to discuss the findings and recommendations noted in the Technical Papers. The online workshop had the participation of the Financial Intelligence Unit, the Criminal Bureau of the Police Force Presidium, the General Prosecutor’s Office and the National Bank of Slovakia.
The workshop was divided into two sessions. The first session focused on the presentation of findings and recommendations provided within the Technical Paper “Developing AML/CFT National Strategy for the Slovak Republic” accompanied by an open discussion with the participants. The document provided guidance and recommendations for development of a new AML/CFT Strategy for the Slovak Republic, alongside with a review and recommendations for improvement of the current AML/CFT Strategic Principles. Although such a strategy is not mandatory, it will provide a helpful framework for the Slovak Republic to formulate its own context-specific response to the risks and threats from ML and TF. The second part of the workshop was dedicated to the presentation of the second Technical Paper “Designing a National Action Plan and National Co-ordination Mechanisms”, also accompanied by an open discussion. Slovak authorities demonstrated how important these outputs are and will be in the future to improve the current AML/CFT landscape.
Besides serving as a platform to discuss key elements of an AML/CFT National Strategy and an effective National Action Plan and National Co-ordination Mechanisms, the workshop aimed at enhancing the Slovak authorities’ understanding and awareness of both processes and engage them as much as possible in the different phases into which they are divided.
The activity was organised within the framework of the Technical Support Instrument project “Enhancing the effectiveness of the anti-money laundering framework in Slovak Republic” funded by the European Commission Directorate General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM), and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.