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European Council 1/12/2018  G20 Leaders' Declaration: Building consensus for fair and sustainable development At their meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 30 November and 1 December 2018, G20 leaders adopted a declaration focusing on the future of work, infrastructure for development, a sustainable food future and a gender mainstreaming strategy across the G20 agenda. G20 Leaders' declaration, Buenos Aires Council of the European Union 4/12/2018 VAT: Council adopts short-term fixes to current EU system The Council adopted three short legislative acts aimed at adjusting some of the EU's VAT rules in order to fix four specific issues pending the introduction of a new VAT system. These relate to: call-off stock. The text provides for a simplified and uniform treatment for call-off stock arrangements, where a vendor transfers stock to a warehouse at the disposal of a known acquirer in another member state; the VAT identification number. To benefit from a VAT exemption for the intra-EU supply of goods, the identification number of the customer will become an additional condition; chain transactions. To enhance legal certainty in determining the VAT treatment of chain transactions, the texts establish uniform criteria; proof of intra-EU supply. A common framework is established for the documentary evidence required to claim a VAT exemption for intra-EU supplies. These adjustments are due to apply from 1 January 2020. In parallel, discussions are ongoing on a definitive VAT system to replace the current 'transitional' VAT arrangements, applied since 1993. Pending introduction of the new system, four short-term 'quick fixes' are proposed. Council of the European Union 4/12/2018  Money laundering: Council adopts conclusions on an action plan for enhanced monitoring The Council adopted conclusions on an action plan to better tackle money laundering and terrorist financing. The conclusions set out a number of short-term non-legislative actions to address 8 key objectives:   identify the factors that contributed to the recent money laundering cases in EU banks, to better inform possible additional actions in the medium and long term; map relevant money laundering and terrorist financing risks and the best prudential supervisory practices to address them; enhance supervisory convergence and better take into account AML aspects in the prudential supervisory process; ensure effective cooperation between prudential and money laundering supervisors; clarify aspects related to the withdrawal of a bank's authorisation in case of serious breaches; improve supervision and exchange of information between relevant authorities; share best practices and find grounds for convergence among national authorities; improve the European supervisory authorities' capacity to make better use of existing powers and tools. The European rules on anti money laundering and terrorist financing have been considerably strengthened in the past years, with two consecutive reforms being adopted since 2015. The latest revision of the AML directive, the fifth AMLD, was adopted in April 2018 and is due to be transposed at national level by January 2020. In September 2018, the Commission also presented a proposal to further strengthen the supervision of EU financial institutions and to better address money laundering and terrorist financing threats. This proposal is currently under discussion in the Council.