In-house campaigners have won the backing of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in a long-running battle to extend full legal privilege to company lawyers within the EU.

The European Company Lawyers Association (ECLA), the trade association backing the campaign, believes that the DTI, which has already given its support in principle, and the CBI will help lobby the European Commission (EC) for in-house concessions.

The ECLA has been fighting to restore the confidentiality of in-house lawyers' advice to their employers since a 1982 European Court of Justice ruling which said the EC could demand access to corporate counsel's advice in competition enquiries.

The campaign has met with resistance, with the European Parliament last month rejecting recommendations by a parliamentary sub-committee, headed by UK MEP Jonathan Evans, to award in-house lawyers full rights.

The rejection of the sub-committee's advice shows that the Parliament has not been persuaded to support in-house groups in lobbying the EC, which has final authority on any reform.

This is despite the fact that wider competition reform is expected to grant the EC additional powers of investigation, further weakening the position of in-house counsel.

Reform by the Parliament would, in any event, need the backing of the EC and the ECLA has been in talks with EC competition head Mario Monti in an attempt to obtain his support for privilege.

The ECLA vice president and legal manager for Standard Life, Colin Anderson, told Legal Week: "There has been some movement from Monti in recognising the rights of in-house counsel. However, we will now be speaking to the DTI and CBI to touch base on their understanding of the current position and how we can take it forward."

Campaigners have also instructed the Brussels office of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton to fight the cause in the European Court of Human Rights (Legal Week, 12 July). They are waiting to hear whether the court will allow the ECLA to address it in the case of Senator Lines v The Member States of the European Union on the issue of whether legal professional privilege is a human right.