The draft law on
\npreventing and fighting money laundering and the funding of terrorism on Monday
\npassed by Romanian deputies transposes European directives in the field into
\nthe Romanian legislation. Basically, the draft law provides for a ban on the
\nissuing of bearer bonds and compels associations and foundations to report all
\nthe beneficiaries of the sums of money to the state institutions. According to
\nan amendment, the organizations of national minorities, members of the Council
\nof National Minorities, are exempt from those provisions and shall not make any
\nreports. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The amendment is regarded as a concession made by the leftist majority
\nmade up of the Social Democratic Party and ALDE to the Democratic Union of
\nEthnic Hungarians in Romania, with which it collaborates in Parliament, the
\npolitical representative of the largest ethnic minority, the Hungarian
\nminority. The law bans the issuing of new bearer bonds and the carrying out of
\ntransactions with the existing bonds, which become fully invalid under an annulment
\nclause. The bonds which are not forwarded to the head office of the issuing
\ncompany are cancelled de jure when
\nthe stipulated deadline expires and the share capital is slashed. Should joint-stock
\ncompanies fail to fulfill their obligation of conversion before the deadline,
\nall bonds will be wound up. Upon request from any stakeholder or the National
\nTrade Register Office, the court or a specialized court can rule the winding up
\nof the company, according to the new law. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The main opposition party, the
\nNational Liberal Party announced it does not back the draft law. Liberal deputy
\nIon Cupsa said that the law affects civil society and organizations and
\nfoundations cannot be fully efficient due to excessive bureaucracy. The Save
\nRomania Union, USR, also criticized the draft law. USR deputy Stelian Ion said
\nit is a hazardous law because it introduces an instrument of constraint on
\nassociations and foundations. If they do not humor the rulers, the latter can
\napply fines conducive to their dismantling, Stelian Ion warned. Not even UDMR
\nis content with the draft law though the amendment favoring the minorities was
\npassed. UDMR deputy Marton Arpad said that an amendment solving the problem of
\n19 NGOs had been passed, but the problem of tens of thousands of other NGOs is
\nstill pending. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Defending the draft law, Social-Democrat deputy Nicusor Halici,
\npresident of the Judicial Commission, made it clear that there are two European
\ndirectives which had to be transferred into the Romanian legislation and the
\ndeadline has already expired. The final vote on the law will be cast on
\nWednesday.<\/p>\n
(Translated by A.M. Palcu)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Chamber of Deputies of Romania’s Parliament passed the draft law on preventing and fighting money laundering and the funding of terrorism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":66333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[39466,31423,39465,33694,29035],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-79233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-bans-on-issuing-bonds","tag-chamber-of-deputies","tag-preventing-and-fighting-money-laundering","tag-ruling-coalition","tag-udmr"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n