EU needs financial police, money-laundering watchdog, say lawmakers

The European Union should set up a police force to investigate tax evasion and financial crime and create a watchdog to counter money-laundering, EU lawmakers said in a report on Wednesday, which accuses seven member states of acting as tax havens.

The report is the result of a year's work by a committee of the EU Parliament, set up after a series of revelations of alleged financial crime in some EU states and in tax havens across the world, such as the Luxleaks and Panama Papers.

The committee concluded that not enough has been done by EU states to close loopholes on tax rules, as many governments showed a "lack of political will to tackle tax avoidance and financial crime."

Under pressure from media revelations, EU states did approve some reforms in past years to reduce tax avoidance, but blocked the most relevant overhauls over a common tax base and a...