2023-09-01 16:28:42
A new assault on financial transparency was launched quietly in the heart of the summer. It targets France and comes from the influential London law firm Mishcon de Reya, already behind the resounding decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which declared illegal the access of the general public to information on the beneficial owners of companies, in the name of the right to data protection and respect for private life, in November 2022. This judgment had created a stir among NGOs and anti-corruption magistrates, these registers s being imposed in a few years as a major tool to fight against shell companies and the concealment of financial assets.
Several European countries, from Luxembourg to Germany, had immediately closed their registers. But not France, which has chosen to keep its own accessible to the general public, the time to find another solution. But the Swiss-British lawyer Filippo Noseda, one of the main partners of the firm Mishcon de Reya, has just asked the European Commission to sanction France for its refusal to apply this court decision.
In his letter of July 21, that The world was able to consult, the lawyer alerts the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, to the French decision, described as “dangerous challenge for the rule of law” – scratching the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, who would have chosen so “almost theatrical” of “disregarding a judgment of the CJEU in the field of fundamental rights”. He asks Brussels to put Paris on notice to explain, “first stage of the infringement procedure” which could lead to a lawsuit before the CJEU. The mail also targets other countries that have “decided to ignore” the judgment, such as Latvia, Estonia and Denmark.
On a crusade against the “excesses” of transparency
The London cabinet’s offensive comes as Member States are hard at work to comply with the CJEU’s ruling, without weakening the fight against financial crime too much. The European Commission confirms to the Monde having received the mail from Filippo Noseda and explains “examine the question raised therein”without advancing on the possible consequences.
Bruno Le Maire’s cabinet refuses to comment “a procedure whose [il n’était] not informed”while emphasizing the temporary aspect of the situation: “We have put ourselves in working order to implement the CJEU’s decision”et “pending the end of discussions with stakeholders and the necessary IT developments (…)we have chosen to maintain access to the register for the general public” pour ” allow[tre] media outlets and NGOs to continue to access it”.
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