Privacy and data protection: Lindner rejects a cash limit of 10,000 euros

The European Commission will propose a legislative package to combat money laundering in the summer of 2021.

Privacy and data protection: Lindner rejects a cash limit of 10,000 euros

The European Commission will propose a legislative package to combat money laundering in the summer of 2021. This also includes a cash limit of 10,000 euros. Finance Minister Lindner gives the change a clear rejection. The law could still pass.

Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the FDP has spoken out against a planned upper cash limit of 10,000 euros in the EU. "Germany cannot agree to an upper limit for cash payments," said Lindner on the sidelines of a meeting with his EU colleagues in Brussels. Cash is also an expression of privacy and data protection. That is why the federal government will abstain from parts of a corresponding EU legislative package against money laundering.

If enough other EU countries agree, the law could still pass. In the summer of 2021, the European Commission proposed a legislative package to combat money laundering. This included an EU-wide limit on cash payments and restrictions on cryptocurrencies, as well as a new surveillance authority.

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser had campaigned for the cash limit. Faeser explained that the state should not allow itself to be weak in the pursuit of organized crime. "Human trafficking, drug trafficking, money laundering - all areas of organized crime have one thing in common: the perpetrators' ruthless pursuit of profit and power," she warned. The financial damage identified in the area of ​​organized crime exceeded the billion mark for the first time in 2021.

Apart from the financial damage, an increasing willingness to use violence is a big problem. "We see a growing danger that armed conflicts will also be directed against representatives of the state," warned Faeser.

According to Lindner, the EU states are about to finalize the legislative package. The decision will be made by qualified majority - that means at least 15 of the 27 EU countries would have to agree and together make up at least 65 percent of the total population of the EU. Then the states still have to negotiate with the European Parliament before it can come into force.