The Conference of the Parties (COP) 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 17th meeting on 4 and 5 November 2025, marking the 20th anniversary of the opening of the treaty for signature.
Ms Hanne Juncher, Director of the Security, Integrity and Rule of Law Directorate, opened the meeting, highlighting the growing interest from non-member states in joining the Warsaw Convention.
The Conference of the Parties welcomed the Committee of Ministers decision to invite Kazakhstan to accede to the Warsaw Convention, and encouraged the country to proceed with accession.
Under its monitoring procedures, the COP examined and adopted the reports in respect of the United Kingdom Crown Dependencies of Jersey and Isle of Man. Both assessments update and amend the existing COP thematic monitoring reports.
The Conference of the Parties also adopted follow-up reports on the implementation of Article 11 (Previous decisions), Article 25 (Confiscated property); Article 14 (Postponement of domestic suspicious transactions); Article 7(2 c) (Investigative powers and techniques) and 19(1) (Requests for the monitoring of banking operations); and on Article 3(4) (Confiscation measures).
The COP delegates heard the presentation by Mr Cornel-Virgiliu Călinescu, Chair of the Committee of Experts on Criminal Asset Recovery (PC-RAC), on the draft Additional Protocol to CETS No.198 and expressed a broad support to the text of the draft Protocol.
The Conference of the Parties re-elected Ms Oxana Gisca (Republic of Moldova) as its President and Ms Claudia Elion (Netherlands) as Vice-President, and elected Ms Branka Glojnaric (Slovenia), Mr Dainis Vebers (Latvia), and Mr Ian McDonald (United Kingdom), as Bureau members.
Discussions also covered updates on changes to declarations and reservations, a review of the 2024-2026 objectives and priority actions and the recent FATF Asset Recovery Guidance with references to the corresponding provisions of the CETS No.198.
Finally, the Conference of the Parties held a thematic session on best practices in implementing Article 10 (Corporate liability) of the Convention.
Link to List of Decisions
