France for lower cash limit in EU
France is in favor of a lower limit for cash payments than the EU Commission has proposed. In talks with the EU finance ministers, the French representative is said to have made it clear, according to a media report, that the proposal for a cash limit of 10,000 euros does not go far enough for his country. Austria, on the other hand, continues to resist the planned limit.
In mid-July, the EU Commission called for tougher action against money laundering. In addition to a new supervisory authority at EU level, the Brussels authority also has a cash limit of 10,000 euros in mind. Similar, in some cases significantly lower, limits already exist in the majority of member states, but not in Austria or Germany.
According to “Welt am Sonntag”, France has not yet made it clear which limit Paris is actually envisaging. Nationally, there is currently an upper limit of 1000 euros for cash payments, which increases to 10,000 euros for foreign visitors. In practice, cash payments are generally rather uncommon.
Blümel against “creeping abolition of cash”
The position of France is thus in clear contrast to the Austrian position. Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) has spoken out several times in the past few weeks against the limit of EUR 10,000 proposed by the Commission.
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The Finance Minister’s office also emphasized on Sunday that Austria supports the fight against money laundering, but that other regulatory measures – for example in the area of crypto currencies – make more sense than upper limits for cash payments. “We do not want a creeping abolition of cash and we never tire of expressing this skepticism again and again,” said Blümel according to the statement.
