On 4 December 2018, the Council of the EU published a document containing the outcome of proceedings with regards the anti-money laundering (AML) action plan. In the context of money laundering, the Council:

• urges the swift implementation in Member States of the fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive and invites the transposition of the fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive ahead of the 2020 deadline;
• underlines the importance of achieving rapid progress on further strengthening the EU legislative AML framework – and in that regard agrees to proceed with the short term actions of the AML action plan (included in the annex of the document);
• invites the Commission to propose longer-term actions to bring about further improvements in the prudential and AML frameworks. This should be presented to the Council in Q3 2019 at the latest; and
• invites the Commission to report back every six months on the progress made in the implementation of the action plan, starting June 2019.

The AML action plan included in the annex of the document sets out a number of short-term actions focused around eight key objectives. The actions are directed at EU level, and domestic, supervisors and regulatory bodies to improve the strengthening of the EU’s AML framework.