Action against Corruption and Economic Crime

ECCD Newsletter12th Edition | November 2023


Welcome to the twelfth edition of the ECCD Newsletter!

The Economic Crime and Cooperation Division (ECCD) is responsible for the Council of Europe's cooperation and technical assistance activities concerning the implementation of international standards against corruption, money laundering and terrorist financing. In the November 2023 Edition of the ECCD Newsletter you will find interesting updates on our recent activities and useful publications, as well as key developments from the Council of Europe monitoring bodies GRECO and MONEYVAL.

Council of Europe discusses trends and practices of special judiciary in the anti-corruption area

31 OCTOBER 2023

The Roundtable held on 31 October 2023 in Strasbourg, France, brought together judges of special and regular courts from the Council of Europe member states with the aim of presenting the results of the recently conducted analysis “Trends and practice of Special Courts and Specialised Judges in the Anti-Corruption area”, as well as discussing the strengths and weaknesses of specialised judges or special anti-corruption courts.

Raising awareness on money laundering and terrorist financing risks associated with virtual assets

Roundtable on Council of Europe national and sectoral ML/TF risk assessment methodologies

16-17 NOVEMBER 2023

The event held on 16-17 November 2023 in Strasbourg, France, aimed at discussing different beneficiary jurisdictions’ experiences in conducting national and sectoral risk assessments using the Council of Europe methodologies, including identified good practices and lessons learnt.

Promoting the exchange of experience on the risk-based AML/CFT supervision of financial institutions

21-22 SEPTEMBER 2023

The multi-country event gathered 30 representatives of financial supervisory authorities from Croatia, Estonia, Italy, Germany, Latvia, the Netherlands and Spain, to discuss topical issues related to the risk-based supervision of financial institutions.

Supporting the Anticorruption Bureau of Georgia with consolidating its corruption prevention mandate

27-28 SEPTEMBER 2023

The Council of Europe is supporting the Anticorruption Bureau of Georgia in consolidating its mandate, by working jointly with the institution on the development of a methodology on corruption risks assessment and management in state institutions and local municipalities.

Judges, prosecutors and investigators in Azerbaijan enhanced their understanding on processing money laundering cases

18-19 SEPTEMBER 2023

The two-day workshop was held following the request of the Academy of Justice of the Ministry of Justice of Azerbaijan, with the aim of strengthening the practitioners' understanding and provide a platfom for exchanging views on how to effectively tackle money laundering and successfully confiscate criminal proceeds.

Enhancing Lithuania’s framework for exchanging information for the purpose of AML/CFT risk-based supervision

19 SEPTEMBER 2023

On 19 September 2023, the ECCD has organised a workshop to present the recommendations provided following the conducted review of the existing information sharing framework and tools for exchange of information between the Lithuanian Financial Intelligence Unit and other AML/CFT and prudential supervisors in Lithuania.

CoSP 10 : Join the Council of Europe special event on judicial specialisation in the fight against corruption

The special event will be held in a hybrid format on Friday, 15 December 2023, 20:00 CET and can be accessed on the following link.


Council of Europe Monitoring Updates

GRECO GRECO publishes new Evaluation and follow-up reports on the Fourth Evaluation Round (Denmark and Poland) and the Fifth Evaluation Round (Cyprus, Poland,Romania, The Netherlands, North Macedonia and the United Kingdom). MONEYVAL MONEYVAL publishes the Fifth Round Mutual Evaluation Report on North Macedonia and Romania MONEYVAL Chair takes part in the Regional Consultation for Non-Profit Organisations of Asian-Pacific Region Moneyval published a typologies report on money laundering and terrorist financing risks in the world of virtual assets MONEYVAL continues the evaluation process of Azerbaijan and Montenegro


In Other News

Outcomes FATF Plenary, 25-27 October 2023 FATF, Egmont Group and INTERPOL Publication on Illicit Financial Flows from Cyber-enabled Fraud OLAF and EPPO investigate alleged fraud and money laundering in Romania (europa.eu) Basel Institute AML Global ranking in 2023 Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the UN Convention against Corruption

Publication "Trends and practice of Special Courts and Specialised Judges in the Anti-Corruption area"

This study looks into the rationale for the establishment of specialist anti-corruption courts against that of using specialised anti-corruption judges, by comparing the experiences of those countries that have adopted such anti-corruption measures. The in-depth analysis focused on nine member States of the Council of Europe that have anti-corruption courts or anti-corruption judges. Reference is, however, made to a greater number of countries for context and comparison.

Call for Tenders

The Council of Europe Economic Crime and Cooperation Division is looking for international consultants:

to provide consultancy services in the field of money laundering and terrorist financing risks related to digital finance and virtual assets, and more specifically financial investigations of cases involving virtual assets (deadline 6 December 2023).




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