EU cooperation in Financial Criminal Law: National Council decides to amend a law!

EU cooperation in Financial Criminal Law: National Council decides to amend a law!

Simmering, Österreich - On February 26, 2025, a significant progress in EU-wide combating financial offenses was decided in the National Council. A new amendment to the law, which was unanimously accepted, improves the cooperation between the law enforcement authorities and aims to optimize the uncovering and investigation of financial crime. In accordance with an EU directive, decisive changes in the Financial Criminal Act and in the financial crime cooperation law are made. These include the establishment of a central contact point for information requests that are located at the Federal Criminal Police Office and will in future be supported by the Siena platform developed by Europol, such as ots.at reported.

The amendment to the law ensures faster and more effective exchange of information between the EU member states. A central communication channel should ensure that urgency inquiries are processed within eight hours. From 2027, the Siena platform will be actively used for secure data transmission. This initiative is welcomed by the ÖVP and the SPÖ, which has underlined the importance of better control of international financial flows. SPÖ MP Christian Oxonitsch pointed out that such legal bases would have been helpful in investigating past financial scandals such as the Hypo-Alpe-Adria-Causa. The Directive (EU) 2023/977 Criminal law enforcement agencies to combat crimes effectively.

The MP was aware of the importance of a tight, legally required framework. While the green MP Nina Tomaselli emphasized the need for strict persecution of tax evasion, the FPÖ shows approval for the improved cross-border cooperation, but expresses critical comments on EU policy as a whole. The agreements that were achieved in this meeting could have a decisive influence on the effectiveness of law enforcement in the future, also in the context of existing problems in the financial world.