Estonia, Financial Services, Legislation, Risk management, Shadow economy

Urmas Reinsalu, Estonian Minister of Justice. BC.

Reinsalu said in a statement that according to Europol, only two% of all criminal income is caught in the European Union. "In order to ensure that organized crime does not pay off, we must among other things hinder money-laundering," Reinsalu said.

The minister said that the criminal procedure of extensive cross-border money-laundering cases would in the future be led internationally by the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO). According to Reinsalu, this will improve international cooperation. The rules of the European Union hindering money-laundering must also be amended, foremost stipulating a rule across the European Union that the burden of reverse proof is in effect in the case of the administrative confiscation of large sums with a suspicion of money-laundering.

Reinsalu along with his Finnish colleague also gave an overview how artificial intelligence is being used in the justice system in Estonia. "Data is an extremely valuable tool on today's globally digital market. When we talk about artificial intelligence, it is important to find a balance between the free movement of data and privacy. This issue is especially sharp in the justice system, especially in courts, which is why it is very welcome that this discussion was once again opened with Nordic and Baltic colleagues today," the minister said.

The minister showcased several planned activities regarding artificial intelligence, like the idea of a robot judge, that should simplify the work of a judge, bringing the necessary information automatically to the judges and pre-generating decisions itself in simpler cases. The minister also spoke about the digitalization of criminal proceedings, one part of which is to use artificial intelligence for optimizing the procedure, for example when finding patterns in procedure data or making video material searchable.

The Nordic and Baltic justice ministers meet every two years, the last meeting took place in Estonia in September 2016.