"Europe should stop harbouring dictators' blood money"

Dictators should no longer be able to bank on the EU to safeguard their ill-gotten gains for them. That is the message from MEPs who have adopted a resolution calling for Member States to stop providing safe havens for the personal fortunes of leaders of authoritarian regimes. They claim the EU is currently being inconsistent as it imposes sanctions on tyrants while at the same time allowing them to stash their riches in European banks.

MEPs fear that the current approach is damaging the EU's credibility and harming its foreign policy. Restrictive measures such as embargoes and sanctions are not being consistently applied, either because the EU treats countries with similar human rights records in another way or because Member States apply the restrictions differently. Sir Graham Watson, who drafted the resolution, said it was time to put an end to this. "This report aims to make our current policies on restrictive measures coherent and consistent."  

The British liberal pointed out that many dictators see the EU as an attractive place to keep their money, invest, own property and make use of healthcare services as they are free to travel and spend their often dubiously acquired wealth here. "We currently allow them to shield their often dubiously acquired gains within our banking systems, we offer them the incentive and capacity to continue with corruption and exploitation of their people and their resources."

In the report, adopted on Thursday, MEPs call for:

Clear criteria

The Council should develop clear criteria for when and how restrictive measures are to be applied, and who is to be sanctioned. Judgments of the International Criminal Court should be taken into account.  

Target the person responsible, not the population

Only those responsible should be targeted by any sanctions and restrictive measures and the impact on the civil population should be minimised.

Rigour and consistency

Member states should avoid double standards and implement existing sanctions rigorously and consistently regardless of political, economic and security interest. Sanctioned leaders and their associates should be strictly prohibited from owning assets and property within the EU and member states should declare when people on the sanction list have physical and financial assets held within their borders.

Academic institutions as well as sports associations and charity organisations should be prohibited from accepting money from sanctioned leaders and their associates, while the   EU and member states should strictly adhere to travel bans prohibiting sanctioned persons from travelling within the EU for other than humanitarian purposes.

Prosecute accomplices

Member states should investigate and if necessary prosecute anyone in Europe helping to circumvent the sanctions.

Return stolen property to the people

Frozen and confiscated assets should be repatriated as soon as possible to their respective countries to the benefit of the population.