The Impact Of Act No. 129/2019 For The Prevention And Combating Of Money Laundering And Terrorist Financing On The Functioning Of Civil Society

AuthorLoredana Costina
PositionThe Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania
Pages335-342
THE IMPACT OF ACT NO. 129/2019 FOR THE PREVENTION AND
COMBATING OF MONEY LAUNDERING AND TERRORIST FINANCING
ON THE FUNCTIONING OF CIVIL SOCIETY
Phd. student Loredana COSTINA1
Abstract
This article deals with the impact of Act no. 129/2019 for the prevention and combating of money laundering
and terrorist financing on the functioning of civil society, analyzing in p articular the impact of the new provisions in the
matter of preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing on the rules of incorpo rating associations
and foundations and on their reporting activity of the ultimate beneficial owner. The article focuses on the analysis of the
changes made to the Government Ordinance no. 26/2000 on associations and foundations, which sets new rules regarding
the incorporation and functioning of NGOs, taking into account the new rules imposed by Act no. 129/2019 and also
deals with the problem of identifying the ultimate beneficial owner of an association and foundation, an aspect that has
generated numerous reactions at the level of civil society, analyzing at the same time how the Act no. 129/2019 transposed
the provisions of the Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for the purposes of
money laundering or terrorist financing and the opportunity of the sanctions provid ed for the non-observance of the law
provisions by the associations and foundations.
Keywords: civil society, associations and foundations, money laundering prevention, the ultimate beneficial
owner of the association and foundation.
JEL Classification: K14, K15
1. Introduction
On 20.06.2018, the draft of the Act for preventing and combating money laundering and
terrorist financing that will enter into force under no. 129/2019 was registered in the Senate for debate
with no. b336 (by address no. E86/20/06/2018)2. The form from that date on the obligations imposed
on associations and foundations has given rise to numerous controversies and objections regarding
the legality and the opportunity of the provisions, which have culminated with important
modifications of the draft of the act. What resulted is a much more benign form of the act, but in our
opinion a much more unclear one, the Romanian legislator opting for a less controversial transposition
of the provisions of Directive (EU) 2015/849, but a transposition which can pose much more
problems in the practice of incorporating and managing associations and foundations.
The article analyzes the legislative process through which the current act has passed, the main
controversies it has raised, the current form of the act and the issues it still raises, especially regarding
the definition of the ultimate beneficial owner of associations and foundations.
We will use the methods of interpreting the legal norms: the grammatical method, the
systematic method, the logical method and the historical method, analyzing comparatively the current
form of the law and the form originally proposed.
The article brings a novelty element in the analysis of Act no. 129/2019 regarding the
obligations imposed on associations and foundations, as these aspects have not been analyzed in detail
so far, as a result of the recent entry into force of the analyzed provisions.
2. Saga of the obligations imposed on associations and foundations by Act no. 129/2019
for preventing and combating money laundering and terrorist financing
The main provisions that aroused controversy in the debates of the Parliament, the referral of
the Constitutional Court and the taking of positions of the representatives of the civil society at the
1 Loredana Costina - The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Romania, loredana.costina@gmail.com.
2 According to information on the Ro manian Senate website: https://www.senat.ro/Legis/Lista.aspx?cod=21510, date of last
consultation: 02.11.2019.

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