European Lawyers Protest EU Money Laundering Directive

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

14 October 2004

Representative groups for lawyers in the European Union have gone before the European Parliament's committee on petitions to protest the obligation imposed by the 2001 Money Laundering Directive to report money laundering suspicions regarding their clients.

According to the UK Law Society's Law Gazette news service, representatives from the French, Spanish, Italian and Belgian bars, and from the Council of the Bars and Law Societies of the European Union (CCBE) argued last week that the Directive seriously undermines the concept of legal professional privilege.

CCBE vice-president, Bernard Vatier summed up the prevailing mood amongst Europe's lawyers, suggesting to the petitions committee that:

"Lawyers from eastern European countries, who lived under totalitarian regimes, have never been subject to an obligation to report suspicions."

According to the Law Gazette, the petition has been referred to the EU's legal affairs, and justice and home affairs committees. Any changes recommended by the panels will then be put before the European Parliament.

Recommended