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 15th meeting on 9 and 10 November 2023.
Under its monitoring procedures, the COP examined a report in respect of Estonia, which became a Party to the Convention in January 2023. It adopted a thematic monitoring report, which updates and amends its existing monitoring reports for the years 2018 to 2021.
The COP adopted also follow-up reports on the implementation of Article 11 (Previous decisions) for Montenegro, the Russian Federation, Serbia and Türkiye, and on Article 25 (Confiscated property) for Armenia, Azerbaijan, North Macedonia, San Marino, and Serbia. In addition, a follow- up report was adopted on Article 14 (Postponement of suspicious transactions) in respect of the Russian Federation.
The COP agreed the procedures to be initiated in relation to Parties which have not demonstrated sufficient progress. 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, the possible impact of the revised Financial Action Task Force standards on asset recovery on the monitoring modalities of the mechanism. It also held a session on best practices to implement Article 6 of the Convention (management of frozen or seized property), to which several Parties contributed.
The COP discussed and approved its objectives and work plan for 2024-2026.
Finally, the Conference of the Parties elected Ms Oxana Gisca (Republic of Moldova) as President, and Ms Claudia Elion (The Netherlands) as Vice-President, each for a two-year term starting in 2024. It re-elected Mr Azer Abbasov (Azerbaijan) and Mr Aram Kirakossian (Armenia) for a last two-year term as Bureau members, and elected Mr Muhammed Karaca (Türkiye) for a first term.
For more:
- See List of Decisions of the 15th 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)
