EU measures to combat terrorist financing since 9/11: efficient, but not very effective

ABSTRACT

Efforts to disrupt, deter and dismantle terrorist financing networks have become the key elements of the EU's post-9/11 counterterrorism policy. This reflects the prevailing wisdom which suggests that successfully executed counterterrorist financing (CTF) measures mitigate the first-mover advantage terrorists otherwise hold. Using EU’s own goals from its action plans and counterterrorism strategies as the baseline criteria, this article examines how successful the EU has been in implementing the relevant aspects of various UN Security Council resolutions, the special recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force, and its own CTF measures since 9/11. Reflecting the constant evolution of sources and methods of terrorist financing, the importance of cooperation with private financial institutions, and using publicly available data, the article also examines the impact of the EU CTF measures on terrorist financing in and beyond Europe.

KEYWORDS:

• European Union
• Terrorist Financing
• Justice and Home Affairs
• Counter-terrorism
• Financial Action Task Force
• terrorism
• securitization

Acknowledgements

This article is the result of Metropolitan University Prague research project no. VVZ 87–04 (2021) based on a grant from the Institutional Fund for the Long-term Strategic Development of Research Organizations. The author is grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their comments and to Tereza Canova for her research assistance. The usual disclaimer applies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The FIU is to serve as a national centre for receiving, requesting, analyzing and disseminating suspicious transaction reports and other information regarding potential money laundering or terrorist financing. The FIUs in EU MSs are also linked through a computer network (FIU.NET), which is partly funded by the Commission.

2 These were consolidated in 2012: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/publications/fatfrecommendations/documents/fatf-recommendations.html. Due to the divided legislative competence between the EU and MSs, FATF’s SRs VII and IX had to be promulgated in the form of a regulation.

3 Joined Cases C-402/05 P and C-415/05 P regarding Yassin Abdullah Kadi and the Al Barakaat International Foundation (2008). This was followed by several follow-up Kadi cases in 2013 – Joined Cases C-584/10 P, C-593/10 P and C-595/10 P.

4 Judgment of the Court of First Instance in Case T-228/02 on December 12, 2006, followed by judgements in related follow-up cases T-256/07, T-284/08, and C-27/09 P.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Metropolitan University Prague: [Grant Number Research project no. VVZ 87–04 (2021).].

Notes on contributors

Oldrich Bures

Oldrich Bures is the founding director of the Center for Security Studies and Professor of International Political Relations at Metropolitan University Prague. He is also a Visiting Professor at University of South Wales and he lectures at the Department of Security Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague. His research is focused on (counter-)terrorism, privatization of security, and migration. He is the author of EU Counterterrorism Policy: A Paper Tiger? (Ashgate, 2011) and co-editor of Decade of EU Counter-Terrorism and Intelligence: A Critical Assessment (Routledge 2017).