Brussels, 25/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - CDU elected member Klaus-Heiner Lehne, rapporteur for the European Parliament on the money laundering directive, was highly critical of the remarks made by Guy Verhofstadt after the European Council of 21 September, who said the EP is blocking adoption of this directive (see our Special Edition of 22 September, p.4). Mr Lehne said it was quite simply wrong to say that the Parliament wants to exclude lawyers from the directive's scope. He recalled that it was the European Parliament, and not the Council, that, in 1996, invited the European Commission - in a report that he himself had drafted - to present a new proposal on this subject. The Commission had presented its proposal on a second directive in 1999 and the Parliament had proposed to the Council that it be adopted by common accord after the first reading. The Council, however, was unable to come to an agreement on the "possible compromises", notes the rapporteur, who believes that the European Parliament has "always been willing to dialogue". Now, he notes, "we are in conciliation procedure, and the Council is still not willing to compromise. All the new proposals of the European Parliament have been rejected, and the Council has not presented an alternative proposal, although it stubbornly sticks to its view that its position is the only right position". The Parliament agrees that the profession of lawyer or other legal professions are covered by the directive, but "everyone is entitled to be advised by a lawyer", concludes Mr Lehne. He believes it is unacceptable that, in the future, due to the future directive, "an assassin may be in a better position than someone responsible for money laundering". (See EUROPE of 20 September, p.11, on the subject of the failure of conciliation procedure so far).