The Council of Europe, in cooperation with the European Union, convened a two-day regional workshop on “Assessing, managing and mitigating the risks of criminal abuse associated with virtual assets and virtual assets service providers”, in Strasbourg, France, on 11-12 June 2025. The event brought together key stakeholders from supervisory authorities, law enforcement, policy makers, financial institutions and judiciary bodies from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine*, and Tunisia.

The workshop focused on identification and understanding of specific risks associated to virtual assets (VAs) and virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in comparative and national contexts. As several participating jurisdictions are on the verge of introducing legislation in this area, the event provided timely insights into alternative regulatory models and practical tools to assess and manage risk effectively, in compliance with international standards such as Financial Action Task Force’s Recommendation 15.

The event offered a platform for in-depth discussions and sharing of experiences among the Southern Mediterranean jurisdictions to strengthen their understanding and capacity to implement effective regulatory and operational responses to the challenges posed by VAs and VASPs. 

The regional workshop was organised in the framework of the joint EU/Council of Europe Programme “Protecting human rights, rule of law and democracy through shared standards in the Southern Mediterranean” (South Programme V), under the component “Promotion of good governance: fight against corruption, money laundering and financing of terrorism in the Southern Mediterranean” (SNAC V).