If you want to pay large sums of money abroad in the EU, for example when buying a car, there are a few rules you need to follow. This is because many EU countries have cash limits. This means that cash payments can only be made up to a certain amount.
€10k limit regardless (link which also lists state-by-state limits).
From the jailed¹ article:
An EU-wide maximum limit of €10 000 is set for cash payments, which will make it harder for criminals to launder dirty money.
It will also strip dignity and autonomy from non-criminal adults, you nannying assholes!
In addition, according to the provisional agreement, obliged entities will need to identify and verify the identity of a person who carries out an occasional transaction in cash between €3 000 and €10 000.
The hunt for “money launderers” and “terrorists” is not likely meaningfully facilitated by depriving the privacy of people involved in small €3k transactions. It’s a bogus excuse for empowering a police surveillance state. It’s a shame how quietly this apparently happened. No news or chatter about it.
¹ the EU’s own website is an exclusive privacy-abusing Cloudflare site inaccessible several demographics of people. Sad that we need to rely on the website of a US library to get equitable access to official EU communication.
update
The Pirate party’s reaction is spot on. They also point out that cryptocurrency is affected. Which in the end amounts to forced banking.
Money laundering is a real issue so I understand why they would like to do something like this. Having read through the comments here I can see that a lot of people are opposed but I don't really get why.
It stops you from spending your money anonymously. Why is it the state's business if you want to buy a hijab? Fine, they're illegal to wear outside, but if it's legal to wear inside I should be allowed to own one without scrutiny. But I also don't trust the regime that outlawed them in the first place to let me do that.
Sure, so swap it out with something that costs more than 3K.
What if you want to buy a A100, it's a graphics card for doing maths on your computer, it costs 5000 euro. Maybe I'm using it for my AI boyfriend and I think it's embarrassing and don't want anyone to know, or I'm making political cartoons with 3D software and need a lot of VRAM.
Maybe I'm buying very many hijabs. Maybe I'm buying solar panels and don't want to randomly selected to be bothered by the cannabis inspector or I bought a new projector explicitly to give to someone else, but I don't want to be bothered by the telly license inspector -- who at least in Ireland is allowed to invade your privacy and inspect your home looking for projectors. It's not illegal to own a projector and not pay the license, it's only illegal to connect and use a projector without paying the license. If you buy it as a gift for someone who already has some sort of screen and is paying the license, you haven't done anything wrong and don't deserve the scrutiny.
Maybe I bought a statue and I don't want the government to know who I idolise.
Maybe I bought furniture and I don't want the government to know in case the person who made the furniture turns out to be the wrong ethnicity or religion or political affiliation in the future.
Maybe I bought a auto or bike to mod for use on my own property and don't want the government to notify all the relevant patent holders "just in case".