Speaking at the opening session of its 50th Plenary meeting, Deputy Secretary General Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni highlighted that “in the past two decades, MONEYVAL has become a globally renowned player in the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing community.” She added that MONEYVAL is “the most experienced FATF-style regional body when it comes to conducting mutual evaluations” that provides “consistent and accurate interpretations of the FATF standards in the European region”.   

“In the past year the Council of Europe has taken a number of important steps to help our member states combat violent extremism”, the Deputy Secretary stated, and MONEYVAL’s actions to step up counter-terrorist financing measures “are a hugely valuable addition to this body of on-going work”.   

• Speech by Deputy Secretary General Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni

In his address, the FATF Executive Secretary, David Lewis, stressed the essential role that MONEYVAL plays in the global AML/CFT network, being “one of the oldest and strongest FSRBs in the global network” and setting “an example for all to follow.” Mr Lewis added that: “Moneyval was the only FSRB to conduct two rounds of evaluations under the 2004 FATF methodology and was the first FSRB to start assessing effectiveness.”

• Speech by the FATF Executive Secretary David Lewis

In a special session on terrorist financing to mark MONEYVAL’s 50th plenary meeting, Michael Lauber, Attorney General of Switzerland, analysed the challenges for identifying and prosecuting the financing of terrorism. In his speech, he stressed the need to strengthen international co-operation via a number of measures such as the creation of joint investigation teams, improving the exchange of information between the police and prosecutors, and increasing the co-operation between law enforcement and Internet service providers and information technology companies.