Criminal organisations use and misuse legal structures in order to launder the money they earn through crimes. Local authorities can unwittingly and unwillingly facilitate crime and money laundering. After all, criminals or people who can be linked to crime and money laundering have to make use of certain legal structures in order to launder their money. They have to apply for permits, they need housing, etc. In order to prevent this misuse of legal structures, the information exchange between law enforcement authorities is necessary, and an administrative, integrated approach to preventing and fighting organised crime is needed. Such information exchange often poses problems in border regions, however, as most of the laws with regard to information exchange between different authorities are written with purely national situations in mind. In border regions, citizens from neighbouring countries often also apply for certain permits if they wish to do business in a municipality. In such cases, obtaining information about these persons is often more difficult because of the lack of (inter)national legislation. Hence, border regions have a greater chance of being misused for money laundering purposes. This article presents and explains the results of a project by the Euro-regional Information and Expertise Centre (EURIEC). The project aims, inter alia, to analyse the possibilities and “bottlenecks” with regard to the (cross-border) exchange of data, with a view to enhancing the administrative approach to organised crime.

In its 2020 Action Plan to comprehensively reform the EU’s Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing (AML/CFT) framework, the European Commission announced, inter alia, that it would issue guidance for Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). Furthermore, in respect of the envisaged new EU-level Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA), the legislative package published in July 2021 entails a draft provision to allow the AMLA to participate in national or supranational PPPs. If adopted, AML/CFT PPPs will have a legislative foundation in EU law. Though details would still be left to Member States, it is high time to assess the policy ideas behind PPPs as well as their legal ramifications.