Brussels, 11/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Council and Parliament reached an agreement on money laundering, which still needs endorsing by an exchange of letters. The EcoFin/Justice/Home Affairs Council should mark its political agreement at its meeting in Luxembourg on 16 October. Wednesday evening, the Committee of Permanent Representatives approved the compromise reached in the afternoon by the informal "trilogy" between Parliament, the Council and Commission. The parliamentary delegation should do so at the latest at its plenary session that begins on 22 October. "We expect the text accepted by Coreper also to be accepted by Parliament", declared the spokesperson for Commissioner Frits Bolkestein on Thursday.
The directive, that should thus soon be adopted on third reading, will broaden the ban on money laundering, currently limited to drug trafficking (in the framework of directive 91308 on money laundering), to all types of organised crime, fraud and corruption. It will oblige most professions in contact with the transfer of funds to notify to their national authorities any suspect movements: credit establishments and financial institutions, as is currently the case,, as well as chartered accountants, real estate agents, notaries, and other independent legal professions, jewellers, casinos.
The compromise between the Council and Parliament essentially rests on three points: 1) respect of the professional secrecy of lawyers (issue on which the EP rapporteur, Klaus-Heiner Lehne, placed particular emphasis): mainly returning to the Council's common position, the text of Recital 16 of the future directive will state that notaries, independent lawyers or law firms will be exonerated from providing information on the suspicion of money laundering when acting for their clients "before, during and after the legal procedures or on assessment of the legal situation of a client". These professions, however, will have to inform their national authorities when acting in an advisory capacity and that the he or she knows that their client is seeking advice for the purposes of money laundering; 2) use of information: the Council agreed to remove the paragraph of its common position, the so-called "Al Capone Clause", which provided for Member States being able to use information provided in the context of the fight against money laundering "for other purposes". This clause was, however, already in the 1991 Directive on money laundering; 3) informing "clients": the 1991 directive provided for financial or credit institutions not having to reveal to their client that information on money laundering had been handed to the authorities. On the basis of a compromise presented by the Belgian Presidency, the new text provides for Member States "not being obliged" to impose this rule on legal experts in the framework of their activity of defending their client.
Parliament, moreover, agreed to return to the definition provided by the Council for casinos, jewellers and auctioneers, as well as not to include in the list of professions subject to the obligation of providing information, luxury shops, armoured cash carriers or customs officers.
With this compromise, "after a deadlock that lasted years within the Council, the path is clear to strengthen the fight against money laundering as desired by the European Parliament", commented the Parliament's rapporteur, CDU member Klaus-Heiner Lehne, stressing in particular that those aspects concerning "auctioneering and casinos" ("elementary areas" for the fight against money laundering, he says in a press release) "will now be settled". The rapporteur also notes that "the fundamental rights of citizens will continue to be protected", as the directive will not limit the right of citizens to receive legal advice, enjoying as before adequate protection, and lawyers and other legal advisors "will continue to retain a relationship of trust with their clients in future too".