8 Amendments of Daniel FREUND related to 2022/2080(INI)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1 a. Underlines the essential role played by investigative journalists in uncovering tax crimes, corruption and organised crime; highlights the vulnerability to threats and attacks of independent journalists and media workers in the absence of a strong European legislative framework to protect journalists; recalls that the number of threats and attacks against journalists has increased over the past years in the EU, with the most serious cases seeing the assassination of journalists and media workers; welcomes the Recommendation on ensuring the protection, safety and empowerment of journalists and other media professionals in the European Union; stresses nevertheless that this can only be considered a starting point and calls for urgent action on establishing binding measures ensuring the protection of journalists and media workers across the Union;
Amendment 4 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 b (new)
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Welcomes the European Commission proposal of a Directive on protecting persons who engage in public participation from manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings, also known as the anti-SLAPP Directive; recalls the enormous financial and psychological burdens that strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) lay on the work of journalists and media workers, creating a chilling effect and leading to self censorship; underlines that a strong EU anti-SLAPP directive must entail clear provisions on early dismissal mechanisms and effective sanctions against SLAPP initiators, including of pecuniary nature; stresses that an effective anti-SLAPP framework cannot exist in the absence of coordinated complementary measures taken at national level; calls on national authorities to adopt anti-SLAPP legislation tackling domestic lawsuits against public participation;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1 c (new)
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1 c. Stresses that investigative journalists and media workers are often subject to intense financial pressure and encounter great difficulties in finding financial resources for projects investigating tax crime, corruption or organised crime; calls on the European Commission to explore further ways to increase funding available to the media sector, including by establishing a dedicated permanent fund for investigative journalism;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Highlights that beneficial ownership transparency is fundamental for enhancing the fight against tax crime, stresses that the disclosure and publication of beneficial ownership information has legitimate public interest purposes; calls on Member States' authorities to ensure that investigative journalists and civil society have proper access to and are able to exercise scrutiny over this information;
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Calls for the adoption of further initiatives that could enforce actions at EU and national level in AML/CTF, such as widening the competences of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) or the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) and strengthening existing agencies such as the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol);
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3 b. Stresses that the main challenge identified in respect to the application of the provisions of Directive (EU) 2015/849 is the lack of direct applicability of those rules and a fragmentation of the approach along national lines; additionally highlights the findings of the European Court of Auditors' (ECA) Special Report 13/2021, according to which “EU efforts to fight money laundering in the banking sector are fragmented and implementation is insufficient”; underlines that such fragmentation could seriously compromise the integrity of the Union’s financial system and cause serious vulnerabilities in the internal market; welcomes in this regard the European Commission proposals on a new European anti-money laundering legal framework, aiming to achieve the desired uniformity of application and to eliminate divergences and inconsistencies of implementation practices within Member States;
Amendment 35 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Asks the Commission to publish a list of assets frozen or confiscated following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; urges the Commission to provide precise information on Member States’ progress in repealing or withdrawing citizenship and residence permits granted on the basis of financial investment to Russian and Belarusian nationals subject to EU restrictive measures; calls for a total ban on suchall residence and citizenship by investment schemes across the EU;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Recalls the important role of digital land registers in enhancing the fight against tax crime across the Union; calls on the European Commission to put forward an ambitious proposal requiring and assisting Member States to establish reliable digital land registers, enhancing transparency in the field of land ownership;