Projet de loi n° 1118 instaurant les procédures du plaider coupable et de la convention pénale

Bill No. 1118 establishing guilty plea and penal agreement procedures, received on 15 October 2025 by the Parmiament, stems from Draft Law No. 266 adopted on 4 December 2024.

NB: A Draft Law adopted by Parliament (Conseil Bational ) is sent to the government, which has the option of turning it into a bill or suspending the legislative process.

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SUMMARY

Purpose of the reform

Bill No. 1118 creates 33 new articles (38-3 to 38-4-16, 224-1 and 224-2) within the Code of Criminal Procedure, in order to introduce two new types of criminal proceedings subject to approval by the president of the Court of First Instance:

• the "guilty plea" ("plaider coupable") procedure (for natural persons) allowing "the public prosecutor to propose one or more penalties to a defendant, provided that the latter acknowledges the materiality and legal classification of the facts and accepts the proposed penalties" (Explanatory memorandum to Bill No. 1118);
• the "penal agreement" ("convention pénale") procedure (for legal persons and the natural persons representing them) "concluded between the public prosecutor and a legal person or its representative who is the subject of proceedings. This agreement does not require any admission of guilt by the person, only the reality of the facts, and sets out the obligations of the public prosecutor." (ibid.)

These procedures "take into account the interests of the victim by granting them a legitimate place" and "take place in the mandatory presence of the lawyer of the
person implicated, which guarantees respect for the rights of the defence." (ibid.)

Bill No. 1118 is thus in line with "continental law systems for transactional procedures such as appearance on prior admission of guilt or judicial agreements in the public interest in French law. These mechanisms offer the advantage of reconciling procedural speed, the effectiveness of prosecutions and the requirement for fundamental procedural guarantees, in particular with regard to respect for the rights of the defence and the rights of victims." (ibid.)

The Government amended the initial mechanism envisaged by Bill No. 266.

Objectives of the reform

• to bring Monegasque criminal procedure into line with FATF standards, following up on "recommendation b of immediate outcome 8 of the MONEYVAL report published in January 2023 (page 54 of the report), which recommended that the Principality of Monaco: "Legislation should be amended to provide that the investigating and prosecuting authorities have sufficient powers in relation to confiscation and provisional measures covering all predicate offences." It is therefore essential to allow the Public Prosecutor's Office to order confiscations in cases of offences underlying money laundering." (Explanatory memorandum to Bill No. 1118)
• to meet "the requirement for judicial agility, particularly in complex or economically intensive cases" by modernising the Monegasque criminal justice system: supplementing the mechanisms in force, which are "essentially centred around the traditional criminal trial", with "more flexible and faster judicial mechanisms" adapted to "new forms of crime, often transnational", attributable to natural or legal persons who take advantage of "the globalisation of trade, the opacity of certain financial circuits and the speed of digital flows". (ibid.)

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