CoE action against economic crime and the financing of terrorism
Ms Hanne Juncher, Director of Security, Integrity and Rule of Law, DGI, Council of Europe
Madam President of the FATF,
Chair of MONEYVAL, Dear Nicola,
Excellencies, Ministers, distinguished guests and colleagues,
It is a great pleasure to be with you today to speak about the role of the Council of Europe in addressing money laundering and terrorist financing, and more broadly economic crime.
It is a chance also to reflect on the importance of the partnership between the Council of Europe and the FATF, not only from a technical and legal stand-point, but through the broader and essential lens of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
As these crimes become more complex and transnational, so must our responses.
I would like to tell you a bit about what the Council of Europe brings to this global effort - our comparative advantage essentially.
The Council of Europe is the continent’s leading human rights organisation: positioned to ensure cross-cutting coordination between different domains: anti-corruption, anti-trafficking, anti-smuggling, counter-terrorism and anti-money laundering. Each of these sectors is supported by international conventions that are open for accession by CoE member and non-member states.
The Council of Europe’s multi-dimensional framework allows us to approach ML/TF not in isolation, but as part of a broader ecosystem where security, human rights and governance intersect.
Let me start with MONEYVAL – our Committee of experts on the evaluation of AML/CFT. As an FATF-style regional body, MONEYVAL performs rigorous impartial evaluations of members’ compliance with, and effective implementation of, the FATF standards.
The high quality of MONEYVAL’s work requires sustained effort, and this is an absolute priority in my Directorate so as to ensure that MONEYVAL is able to meet the challenges that this new Evaluation Round brings, for us and for the global network. What distinguishes MONEYVAL further is that it benefits from, and contributes to, a wider Council of Europe standard-setting and policy environment that is rights-based, transparent and accountable.
The Council of Europe also has an internationally binding treaty on money laundering and terrorist financing. That is the Warsaw Convention from 2005, which builds upon an earlier convention from 1990. The Convention provides for a number of important measures for the investigation and prosecution of money laundering, with strong provisions on human rights safeguards, international cooperation and asset recovery.
We were pleased to see that some elements of that Convention were later incorporated into the revised FATF standards, making them mandatory globally. As of today, the convention has been ratified by 39 states parties. I would like to take this opportunity to invite those FATF representatives in the room coming from Council of Europe member states which have not yet ratified it, to return from this meeting with a message to consider doing so in the near future.
And to those of you representing non-Council of Europe member states, I would convey a similar message, as the Convention is also open to non-member states.
We are currently negotiating an Additional Protocol to the Warsaw Convention, to ensure that asset recovery remains effective, grounded in the rule of law, and fit for future challenges.
Likewise, the Council of Europe has a long-standing involvement as an intergovernmental organisation in legal cooperation. This includes numerous multilateral treaties on issues such as mutual legal assistance, extradition, and the transfer of sentenced persons, which have become central pillars of cooperative efforts in Europe.
Last week, the Committee of Ministers adopted the 3rd additional Protocol to the Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal matters, modernising judicial cooperation. The new Protocol will be opened for signature at the informal Conference of Ministers of Justice taking place in Valletta in Malta on the 19th of September. It aims to make mutual legal assistance more effective, flexible and adapted to current realities, while guaranteeing a high level of protection of human rights.
GRECO, the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption, plays a crucial role in guiding our members in preventing and fighting corruption – a key component of AML/CFT regimes. GRECO helps safeguard the institutional integrity necessary for effective AML/CFT frameworks and for tackling corruption as a proceeds-generating crime, in European countries and beyond. Public and private institutions that are vulnerable to corruption cannot support even the best designed AML frameworks.
The Council of Europe is also deeply engaged in identifying and addressing emerging risks – such as those linked to virtual assets, AI and new forms of cyber-enabled crime.
With the rise of cyber-enabled financial crime, the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime and its additional Protocols provide the most comprehensive legal framework to date for international cooperation on cybercrime, and any crime involving electronic evidence. Ratified now by 80 countries from around the world, it is a global tool for fighting cybercrime and tracing digital money trails, all of which is critical for AML/CFT efforts.
Our work on AI and data protection complements AML/CFT efforts by providing ethical guidance on the use of automated systems in financial compliance and law enforcement.
I would refer you also to our Guidelines on how to integrate the requirements of Convention 108+ in the area of AML/CFT in order to provide for an appropriate level of data protection, while facilitating transborder data flows. The Guidelines also highlight certain areas in the AML/CFT context where data protection safeguards should be strengthened.
And just as importantly, the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on AI and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, opened for signature in September last year, fosters safe innovations while avoiding adverse impacts on human rights. This provides a basis for authorities, such as AML/CFT supervisors, FIUs, and law enforcement agencies, to use AI responsibly in their work, leveraging its capabilities for data analytics and detecting ML/TF related activities.
AI’s capabilities are revolutionary but not without risk – they can be exploited by criminals to automate and scale illicit activities. AI can also be exploited by terrorists, which leads me to another important area of our work – fighting terrorism.
The Council of Europe Counter-Terrorism Strategy addresses evolving challenges such as misuse of technology by terrorist actors, the rise in violent extremism leading to terrorism, and youth radicalisation. The Council of Europe Steering Committee on Counter-Terrorism, the CDCT, has negotiated a new definition of a terrorist offence in a Protocol amending the Council of Europe Convention on the prevention of terrorism, which should be adopted in early July.
Financing of terrorism in its different forms is regularly considered by the CDCT in the context of its ongoing work. With its recent Guidelines on strategies for prosecuting violent extremism conducive to terrorism, the CDCT recommended an expanded use of financial investigations as part of criminal investigations into violent extremist groups and networks.
An effective AML/CFT system requires strong and independent legal professionals. In March of this year, the Council of Europe adopted the first-ever international treaty for the protection of the profession of lawyer. AML/CFT obligations sometimes compete with important principles such as the duty of confidentiality and legal professional privilege.
There is no silver bullet for how to deal with this tension, but the Convention showcases the importance of maintaining the independence of the legal profession to ensure lawyers can continue to act as both upholders of the rule of law and gatekeepers to the financial system.
Another important stakeholder is civil society. The Secretary General’s Roadmap Towards a New Democratic Pact for Europe highlights the essential contributions of civil society, youth and individual citizens in building democracies that are resilient, inclusive, and agile.
While protecting the financial system is essential, it cannot come at the cost of shrinking the civil space, or restricting the legitimate work of non-profits and human rights defenders. The Council of Europe is currently updating Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)14 of the Committee of Ministers on the legal status of NGOs in Europe, covering various key aspects of the legal and fiscal frameworks in member states to ensure they can continue to make a valuable contribution to public and social life.
The Council of Europe’s technical assistance programmes to prevent and combat economic crime and corruption form an integral part of our so-called strategic triangle of standard-setting, monitoring and cooperation. This ensures that our legally binding standards are not just monitored but also implemented, and that States are supported in that process by a sector which is independent from the monitoring bodies, so as not to give rise to any real or perceived conflicts of interest.
In conclusion, the Council of Europe brings to the global AML/CFT architecture something both complementary and essential: a normative compass. We align AML/CFT efforts with broader rule of law initiatives. We help ensure that the fight against crime strengthens, rather than undermines, democratic values and human rights.
As threats evolve, we will continue to act as a bridge between the technical and the ethical, between regulation and rights, and between global coordination and local impact.
We are very proud as an Organisation to have observer status with the FATF and also of course, through MONEYVAL as an associate member, to be part of this shared effort to strengthen the global AML/CFT architecture. We look forward to deepening our cooperation with all of you in building financial systems that are secure, just, and resilient.
Thank you.