European Bar leaders unite against plans for broader money laundering reporting ;FRAUD: EU directive would mean reporting suspicions even when no legal proceedings ;The Bar associations of Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands have joined together to oppose European Union proposals to broaden EU money laundering legislation.

;Their presidents issued a joint declaration criticising the EU at a meeting in Berlin this week.

;Not even totalitarian dictators have asked law firms to do this.

A citizens right to absolute confidentiality from their law firm is a basic fundamental legal right, said the joint statement.

;Irish lawyer John Fish, vice-president of the overarching Council for Bar and Law Societies in Europe (CCBE), said the initiative was encouraging.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

I would only wish that more presidents would do the same.

The CCBE is against moves to weaken client confidentiality.

;The declaration comes two weeks after the European Association of Lawyers passed a similar resolution.

;English law already requires lawyers to report clients where they suspect money comes from drug trafficking or terrorism.

The planned EU directive would also require lawyers to report information received in private consultations and financial transactions where legal proceedings are not involved; however European ministers did recently pull back from making lawyers initial advice to clients subject to money laundering reporting requirements (see [2000] Gazette, 5 October, 6).

;While UK legislation has already gone some way along the route of imposing a duty to report, countries such as Germany do not have any such requirement.

One source said: They feel appaled.

The feeling is that it is a slippery slope.

;Che Odlum, deputy head of the Law Societys Brussels office, said: We support the principle that legal professional privilege is one of the foundations of the legal profession.

Its a protection for the clients.

;Roger Ede, who has led much of the Law Societys work on the planned directive, said the Society is concerned about the further inroads proposed.

But he said: We hope that the European Parliament will recognise the importance to the administration of justice of maintaining the current legal position in the UK, which preserves the right of a person to confer with his/her lawyer and receive all legal advice in ;private.

;Irwin Mitchell partner and fraud expert Kevin Robinson said: The British money laundering rules have already driven a coach and horses through client confidentiality.

;Anne Mizzi