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Photo: Monika Skolimowska / DPA
The EU Commission wants to fight money laundering with a comprehensive package of measures.
For this purpose, invoices should in principle only be allowed to be paid in cash up to 10,000 euros.
However, exceptions are provided for transactions between private individuals or people without an account.
This is to ensure that you can pay for a used car from a private person in cash and do not have to rely on the money being transferred later or prepayment.
The EU states and the European Parliament still have to approve the plans.
In contrast to Germany and Austria, two thirds of the EU countries have already introduced upper limits for cash payments, according to the Commission.
Crypto currencies such as Bitcoin are also to be regulated more tightly.
"Today's changes will ensure that transfers of crypto assets such as Bitcoin can be fully traced," it said.
Anonymous digital purses - so-called wallets - should be banned.
The EU Commission describes the new anti-money laundering authority Alma (Anti-Money Laundering Authority) as the heart of the proposed legislative package.
Among other things, it should be able to take over the supervision of certain financial companies if there is an increased risk of money laundering or terrorist financing.
In Germany, for example, the insolvency of the scandalous company Wirecard had shown that there were loopholes in the controls.
Important information about money laundering and other suspicious factors were sent.
Suspicious transactions amount to hundreds of billions of euros
The problem of money laundering in Europe is enormous.
"It is estimated that suspicious transactions within Europe amount to several hundred billion euros," the European Court of Auditors recently announced.
Money that is mostly earned in connection with suffering - for example through forced prostitution, human and arms trafficking, drug deals or extortion - is channeled into the normal economic cycle.
Around 250 employees are planned for the new surveillance authority.
According to plans, it could be established in 2023 and begin most of its work the following year.
It should be fully occupied by 2026. Its tasks should also include the coordination and monitoring of national authorities.
Banks in Germany welcomed the efforts for Europe-wide uniform regulations.
In view of the patchwork, the initiative was "a small turning point," said the chief executive of the Association of German Banks, Andreas Krautscheid.
"The package of measures of the European Commission has the potential to become groundbreaking for an EU-wide fight against money laundering and terrorist financing."
hej / dpa