Website: Organised crime

In tackling financial and organised crime, the Council of Europe's activities reflect a multidisciplinary approach. This strategy is built upon three pillars: Establishing European rules and standards, assessing compliance of European legislation with these standards and developing technical co-operation programmes with particular countries or groups of countries.

The Council is active in the fight against corruption, organised crime, cybercrime, money laundering and terrorist financing and other forms of financial and serious crime. Two sets of monitoring machinery enable it to assess progress in these areas: the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) and the Committee of Experts on the Evaluation of Anti-Money Laundering Measures (Moneyval).

The main aim of technical co-operation is to increase European countries' capacity to deal with these problems. This includes, in particular, improving legislation, establishing institutions to combat organised crime, offering advice and strengthening co-operation between states. The accumulated expertise of 47 countries, plus that of the private sector is important.

Most of the financing of these activities comes from the Council of Europe, although the European Commission and other bilateral donors also contribute.