BRUSSELS, Belgium—The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy and Spain together have petitioned the European Commission to limit the amount consumers can pay in cash within the European Union to €5,000.
They also asked that the €500 note be taken out of circulation, caretaker Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra said in a letter to the Dutch parliament.
“Both these measures are intended to help combat organized crime and money laundering. Cash poses a major risk as it is anonymous and untraceable. This makes it the ideal tool for money laundering, terrorist financing, drug trafficking, human trafficking, and tax evasion, among other things,” NL Times explained.
Notes Remain in Circulation
The Netherlands has been calling for a cash limit of €3,000 for some time, but could not find enough support for that amount among other EU Member States. The countries therefore called for a €5,000 limit, with room for individual countries to themselves introduce a lower limit.
The European Central Bank stopped printing €500 notes more than two years ago due to concerns of "illegal practices," but the notes are still in circulation. At the start of 2019, there were about 516 million €500 notes in circulation. Earlier this year there were still 400 million notes in circulation.
The Dutch Financial Intelligence Unit said in 2019 the €500 is almost exclusively used by drug criminals, NL Times said.