ACAMS Today Magazine (Nov-Dec 2008) Vol. 7 No. 6 | Page 28

AML AROUND THE WORLD Organized crime in a borderless Europe –The case of Romania T he EU is a heterogeneous mix of countries that has, since the turn of the century, seen an eastward expansion to include 10 formerly communist states. In 2004, eight Eastern European countries (Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia) joined the EU and in 2007, the EU accepted two more countries (Romania and Bulgaria) from Southeastern Europe. A great diversity spans the 27 EU member states reflected not only in cultural, political and economic terms, but also in terms of the countries’ individual and collective exposure to organized crime and money laundering activities. The relative ease in crossing geographical borders by Shengen member states, including all the Eastern European member states apart from Romania and Bulgaria that have