Recital 84

(84) Third countries which are ‘subject to a call for action’ by the relevant international standard-setter, namely the FATF, present significant strategic deficiencies of a persistent nature in their legal and institutional AML/CFT frameworks and their implementation which are likely to pose a high risk to the Union’s financial system. The persistent nature of those significant strategic deficiencies, reflective of the lack of commitment or continued failure by the third country to tackle them, signal a heightened level of threat emanating from those third countries, which requires an effective, consistent and harmonised mitigating response at Union level. Therefore, obliged entities should be required to apply the whole set of available enhanced due diligence measures to occasional transactions and business relationships involving those high-risk third countries to manage and mitigate the underlying risks. Furthermore, the high level of risk justifies the application of additional specific countermeasures, whether at the level of obliged entities or by the Member States. Such an approach would avoid divergence in the determination of the relevant countermeasures, which would expose the entirety of Union’s financial system to risks. Where Member States identify specific risks that are not mitigated, they should be able to apply additional countermeasures, in which case they should notify the Commission thereof. Where the Commission considers that those risks are of relevance for the internal market, it should be able to update the relevant delegated act to include the necessary additional countermeasures to mitigate those risks. Where the Commission considers that those countermeasures are not necessary and undermine the proper functioning of the Union’s internal market, it should be empowered to decide that the Member State put an end to the specific countermeasure. Prior to triggering the procedure for that decision, the Commission should provide an opportunity to the Member State concerned to submit its views on the consideration of the Commission. Given its technical expertise, AMLA can provide useful input to the Commission in identifying the appropriate countermeasures.

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Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-09-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.