News

The Third Plenary Meeting of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism took place in Moscow (Russian Federation) on December 16, 2005, gathering delegations from all EAG member-states (Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), as well as EAG observer states and organizations (FATF, World Bank, IMF, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, CIS Executive Committee, CSTO, Eurasian Economic Community, Council of Europe, Great Britain, Germany, Georgia, Italy, Moldova, USA, Turkey, Ukraine, Japan).

 

In the course of the meeting the participants characterized the activities of the EAG as gradual and dynamic progress, which increasingly attracts the attention of other countries and international organizations.

 

EAG member-states have unanimously taken the decision on granting Uzbekistan full membership status in the EAG and granting Turkey observer status.

 

The Plenary Meeting approved the methodology for developing legislative recommendations in the AML/CFT sphere elaborated by the Legal Working Group. The Plenary also agreed with the initiative on conducting private sector consultations and decided to work out the timetable, format and other aspects of the consultations.

 

The Plenary paid special attention to cooperation with the FATF. In particular the decision to apply for the new status of an Associated FATF member was taken. The Plenary Meeting also defined the procedure for the exchange of mutual evaluation reports between the EAG and FATF and other FATF-style regional bodies, as well as the procedure for their publication.

 

The Plenary meeting considered and approved the legal and technical recommendations on forming financial intelligence units (FIUs) in EAG member-states.

 

The Plenary reviewed and approved the Final Report on the results of typologies research in 2005 and agreed with the proposed topics for typologies research in 2006.

 

The Plenary Meeting was informed of technical assistance programs being carried out in the Eurasian region and supported the proposals of the Working Group on Technical Assistance in relation to the coordinating activities of the EAG and other interested international organizations and states in the region. The Plenary also approved the Technical Assistance Needs Assessment Reports of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and determined the main technical assistance needs of the EAG member-states in technical assistance and the activities for providing donor assistance to the mentioned states in line with the results of the Donor Conference, which took place on the December 14, 2005.

 

The Report on the results of implementing the EAG Action Plan for 2005 was presented to the Plenary and the EAG Strategic Action Plan for 2006-2008 was approved.

 

The Plenary assessed a number of other issues, connected with EAG activities, which had been previously agreed upon.

 

It was decided to hold the Fourth EAG Plenary Meeting in Moscow in the second quarter of 2006.