The Conference of the Parties to the Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism (CETS no. 198) held its 16th meeting on 17 and 18 October 2024.
Under its monitoring procedures, the COP examined a report in respect of Morocco, a first non-Council of Europe member state that underwent the COP horizontal review. The COP also examined and adopted a report in respect of Aruba, to which the Warsaw Convention applies following the declaration made by the Netherlands. Both assessments update and amend the existing COP monitoring reports for the years 2018 to 2022.
The COP also adopted third follow-up reports on the implementation of Article 11 (Previous decisions) for Montenegro, the Russian Federation, Serbia and Türkiye, Article 25 (Confiscated property) for Armenia, North Macedonia and Serbia and Article 14 (Postponement of suspicious transactions) in respect of the Russian Federation. The first follow-up report on Article 7(2 c)/19(1) (Monitoring of banking operations) in respect of France, Spain, Monaco, Lithuania and Denmark was also discussed and adopted at the 16th plenary meeting.
The COP agreed to issue a positive opinion to the Committee of Ministers on Kazakhstan’s application to join the Warsaw Convention. Other topical issues discussed by the Conference of the Parties included a review of existing declarations and reservations, the preparation of a future additional protocol to the Convention and revised Interpretative Note on Article 11 of the Convention. The COP also held a thematic session on best practices to implement Article 3(4) of the Convention (reversal of burden of proof in confiscation proceedings).
Finally, the Conference of the Parties decided to extend the application of Rule 19bis concerning thematic monitoring reviews, for the next 5 years and amended its workplan of activities to include follow-up procedures for Morocco and Aruba.
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