On 14 July 2026, the Council of the European Union published a proposal for a decision to sign an additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism (CETS No. 198). The Protocol aims to supplement and modernise the 2005 Convention for all Parties, introducing new definitions for 'financial investigation', 'virtual asset', and 'virtual asset service provider'.
The proposal, scheduled for discussion at the Council meeting on 20 July 2026, includes several key measures. Extended confiscation (Article 3) requires Parties to confiscate property derived from criminal conduct for money laundering, terrorism financing, or listed offences, with an option to reserve application to offences generating major economic advantage or punishable by at least four years imprisonment. Non-conviction-based confiscation (Article 4) mandates confiscation without a criminal conviction where a court finds the property derived from crime, covering cases where proceedings could not continue due to death, illness, absconding, or statute of limitations under 15 years. Third-party confiscation (Article 5) requires freezing, seizure, and confiscation of proceeds held by third parties, without prejudice to bona fide third parties' rights.
Provisional measures (Article 6) oblige Parties to enable urgent, ex parte measures to prevent asset dissipation, with temporary validity limited where not freezing or seizure orders. Investigative powers (Article 7) allow courts to order financial institutions and virtual asset service providers to make records available, with no refusal on bank secrecy grounds; Parties must enable account identification, transaction details, monitoring, and non-disclosure orders. Financial investigations (Article 8) require competent authorities to conduct proactive financial investigations for terrorism financing and offences generating major economic advantage, which may be independent, alongside, or within criminal investigations and can continue after conviction.
Central account registry (Article 9) mandates Parties to establish a central automated mechanism identifying holders of bank, payment, securities, virtual asset accounts and safe-deposit boxes, accessible to financial intelligence units, asset recovery offices, and designated authorities. Suspension of transactions (Article 10) allows financial intelligence units to urgently suspend accounts, business relationships, or transactions suspected of links to money laundering, terrorism financing, or listed offences, with maximum duration limited to strictly necessary; Parties may reserve not to apply to account or business relationship suspension.
Asset recovery office (Article 11) requires each Party to establish or designate an office to identify and trace property and cooperate cross-border, with power to take urgent provisional measures (maximum 7 working days) in cross-border cases. Access to information (Article 12) mandates asset recovery offices to have timely access to information, including immediate or direct access to real estate, citizenship, population, business, vehicle, aircraft, watercraft, and beneficial ownership registers, and immediate/direct or on-request access to mortgage, currency, border crossing, customs, financial statement, wire transfer, account balance, and virtual asset transfer data, as well as fiscal, social security, and criminal investigation information.
The Protocol significantly strengthens cross-border asset recovery by introducing extended and non-conviction-based confiscation, new obligations for virtual assets, mandatory financial investigations, central account registries, and enhanced powers for financial intelligence units and asset recovery offices. The proposal will be discussed at the Council meeting on 20 July 2026, after which the Council may adopt the decision to sign the Protocol on behalf of the EU.