The Council of Europe’s Economic Crime and Cooperation Division is supporting the Slovak Republic in preparing and launching its next Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/TF) National Risk Assessment (NRA). Following recommendations provided for the improvement of their previous NRA Report, the Slovak authorities decided to base their next ML/TF NRA on the methodology provided by the Council of Europe, and requested assistance from the TSI Project^* in this endeavour.

The workshop on the application of the Council of Europe’s ML/TF NRA Methodology in the Slovak Republic gathered 40 representatives of 12 different national authorities who will participate in the NRA. It served to discuss the practical implementation of the methodology in the Slovak context, while at the same time launching the process itself in practice. It allowed participants to acquire a better understanding of the Council of Europe’s methodology and its specific practical implications, in comparison with other methodological processes used in previous rounds. 

The workshop provided the opportunity for representatives of the Slovak institutions to discuss the challenges and opportunities for improvement relating to the previous NRAs, inter-institutional cooperation for the efficiency of the upcoming NRA, and the concrete steps to be taken in the preparation phase. 

The practical orientation of the discussion was further facilitated by the participation of counterparts from other European countries having previously implemented the Council of Europe’s methodology, who shared concrete aspects of the challenges they had encountered, how they had resolved them, what results and benefits they had obtained, and specific advice to the Slovak counterparts. This was highlighted as a very useful exchange for Slovak authorities to better comprehend the practical requirements of the application of the methodology, as well as its added value for the country.  

The event also served as a national coordination platform to define the national agencies’ roles in the upcoming process, coordination mechanisms, national working group composition and tasks, and a provisional timeline for the preparation, data collection and analysis, and drafting of the new NRA.  

^*This support is being provided in the framework of the joint TSI Project on “Enhancing the effectiveness of the AML Framework in Slovakia” funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.