The Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the 46 Council of Europe member states have adopted an additional protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on laundering, search, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds from crime and on the financing of terrorism (the “Warsaw Convention”) during their annual Committee of Ministers session today.
The new treaty modernises the legal and institutional frameworks for asset recovery, in response to increasingly sophisticated, transnational and technologically advanced criminal networks. It enhances the authorities’ capacities to monitor and suspend suspicious transactions and to confiscate assets, including crypto-assets, obtained through criminal conduct.
Europe tools up to disrupt criminal networks
“Democratic security depends on strong institutions, public trust and the rule of law — foundations that illicit financial flows erode when they move freely through the global financial system, helped by new technologies. With this protocol, states are equipping themselves with stronger means to combat money laundering, disrupt criminal networks, defend democracy across borders and across technologies, and better protect the victims of financial crime,” said the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset.
The protocol modernises and reinforces the Warsaw Convention – a cornerstone instrument in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing – and it builds on more than two decades of implementation, on the revised Financial Action Task Force standards, and on the EU acquis.
How will the new protocol help fight profiting from crime?
Several significant new mechanisms are introduced. States will be able to confiscate any assets of the convicted person beyond those linked to the specific offences if a national court finds that the property derives from criminal conduct. Confiscation without a criminal conviction will also be possible, by court order, where assets are suspected of constituting proceeds of crime. Property of criminal origin held by third parties may likewise be seized or confiscated, with safeguards for those acting in good faith.
The protocol requires each party to establish or designate an asset recovery office tasked with tracing assets of criminal origin, and an asset management office responsible for the proper management of frozen, seized, and confiscated assets. It also strengthens financial intelligence units by expanding their powers to obtain data from a broader range of entities, including virtual-asset service providers, and broadening the situations in which those units exercise their monitoring and suspension powers.
Competent authorities will gain rapid access to data held by financial institutions and virtual-asset service providers, in particular, information on account holders and crypto-asset owners via central automated or similarly effective mechanisms.
To strengthen international cooperation, the protocol expands and improves information exchange, introduces the possibility of joint investigative teams, establishes forms for cross-border cooperation, and regulates asset-sharing agreements between states. Direct, mandatory cooperation between the asset-recovery offices and between the asset-management offices of the parties will facilitate information exchange and expedited action to support the freezing or seizure of assets liable to confiscation.
A key feature of the protocol is the priority given to victims. Under certain conditions, states may return confiscated property to legitimate owners or compensate victims, even before a final confiscation decision is issued. The protocol also encourages states to use confiscated or seized criminal assets for social or public purposes, for example by using assets seized from drug traffickers to support rehabilitation centres.
The additional protocol will be opened for signature at the cybercrime conference to be held in Strasbourg on 14 October 2026. Five ratifications are required its entry into force, including three by Council of Europe member states.
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The Council of Europe’s Convention on laundering, search, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds from crime and on the financing of terrorism (CETS no. 198), opened for signature in Warsaw in 2005, is the first international treaty covering both the prevention and the control of money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
The convention currently has 39 states parties and 5 further signatories that have not yet ratified, including the European Union. It is also open to accession by states that are not members of the Council of Europe. A conference of the parties monitors compliance with its provisions.
