The CCBE has delayed controversial plans to call on all its constituent law societies and bar associations to admit in-house lawyers as members.

While employed lawyers are given equal status in the UK, doubts over their independence mean they are banned from joining their local bars in many European countries.

CCBE president Hans-Jrgen Hellwig told the Gazette that he wanted the ongoing issue of in-house lawyers' status to be dealt with in a uniform way throughout Europe, and that membership would be the starting point for that.

The proposal put to the plenary session was that bar membership would not mean having to grant in-house lawyers legal professional privilege, which is a key sticking point in the whole debate.

The European Commission in particular refuses to recognise that in-house lawyers enjoy privilege - even those who are members of their law societies - and employed lawyer groups have been increasing the pressure to have this policy reversed.

However, it is understood that the CCBE is also concerned that the mushrooming number of groups representing in-house lawyers could divide the influence and ultimately even the regulation of the legal profession.

Nonetheless, some of the bars still have considerable reservations about membership, and a decision has been put off until the next plenary, which will be held in November in Frankfurt.

Opposition to in-house lawyers being members of bars concentrates on concerns that they are not sufficiently independent from their employers.

However, some Scandinavian bars - which are subject to deregulated legal regimes with few or no reserved activities for lawyers - are also keen to maintain privilege as the main competitive advantage for their members.

The European Court of Justice is currently examining the issue of privilege for in-house lawyers in the Akzo Nobel case.

Neil Rose