Consultations with the Parliamentarians of EAG member states were held in St. Petersburg, Russia on June 8, 2009

In the framework of the consultations, the participants from Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan as well as international experts from the FATF, World Bank, MONEYVAL and CIS Interparliamentary Assembly discussed key issues of adopting AML/CFT legislation and further integration of EAG member states into international AML/CFT system.

The consultations were presided over by the Deputy EAG Chairman Valery Yaroshevsky.

Such consultations which united the parliamentarians from all the EAG member states have been held for the first time and were aimed at creating effective dialogue between the EAG and the legislators of the Eurasian region in order to discuss legal regulation of the national AML/CFT regimes and implementation new international legal instruments in this field.

The discussions focused on the EAG member-states’ legislation compliance with the international standards, including FATF 40+9 Recommendations.

At the moment all the EAG member states are undertaking prominent measures for harmonization of the national AML/CFT legislation on the basis of the recommendations formed as a result of mutual evaluations. Legal and institutional AML/CFT foundations have been created in most of the EAG member states.

Since foundation of the EAG mutual evaluations were held for the following countries:

• the FATF assessed China in November 2006 with the participation of the EAG;
• the EAG evaluated Kyrgyzstan in January-February 2007;
• Tajikistan underwent an assessment by the World Bank in June 2007;
• the Evaluation of Russia by the FATF, MONEYVAL, and EAG was completed in July 2008;
• the Evaluation of Belarus was completed in December 2008.

In particular, during the past 6 month, since the 9th EAG Plenary meeting, national AML/CFT system in Uzbekistan has been restored after adoption of the Law “On Amendments and Additions to the Law of Uzbekistan ‘On Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing’ ” on April 22, 2009.

On May 28, 2009 Turkmenistan adopted AML/CFT legislation.

Consultations with the Parliamentarians opened the EAG Plenary week which will continue till June 10-11, when the EAG 10th Plenary meeting will be held presided over be the EAG Chairman Oleg Markov.