Brussels, 21/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - “The sooner the EU can move to qualified majority voting and a stronger role for the Court, as agreed by all the Governments in the draft constitutional treaty, the better,” said Gijs de Vries, the EU's counter-terrorism coordinator, at a conference on the fight against financing terrorism in The Hague on 15 and 16 March. Giving a global picture of European legislation in this area, Mr de Vries pointed the finger at third pillar instruments as being of “limited use” in fighting crime. He considered it regrettable, given the length of the process, that conventions and framework decisions “require unanimity in the Council and subsequent approval in all 25 national Parliaments”. Also, Austria and the United Kingdom have still not fully implemented the 2001 framework decision on money laundering and other instruments, and the Parliaments in several Member States have still not approved the first Europol Protocol to which Member States agreed in 2000. Mr de Vries highlighted too the “lack of competence” of the EU Court of Justice in this area and the fact that the Commission “lacks its regular powers” to request the Court to rule on national implementing measures.