Brussels hopes this will improve the capacity of EU member states to fight organized crime.
On December 12, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament agreed on rules for freezing and confiscating the proceeds of crime. This was reported by the press service of the council.
“The profits from crime are staggering. Only if governments have the means to recover these profits will they have a chance to fight organized crime,” said Justice Minister Felix Bolaños of Spain, which handles the EU Council presidency.
As noted in the communiqué, the new directive “establishes minimum pan-European rules regarding the tracking, identification, freezing, confiscation and management of criminal assets.”
Brussels hopes this will improve the capacity of EU member states to fight organized crime.
“The Directive will apply to a wide range of crimes, such as organized crime, terrorism, human trafficking and drug trafficking,” the document said.
Under the new rules, member states will need to ensure that authorities involved in the technical monitoring, freezing and management of criminal money “have qualified personnel and sufficient financial and technological resources.”
The future law will also apply “to violations of penalties following the adoption of the directive on the definition of criminal offenses and penalties for violations of EU restrictive measures, which is still under consideration .”
As the Council of the EU explained, “As a result, people and companies that profit from the evasion of sanctions will see their income confiscated in the same way as the income of human traffickers or drug cartels.”
The agreement must be approved by the EU Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper). Once approved, the bill will be officially approved by the EU Council and the European Parliament.
Let’s remember that EU leaders approved plans to use billions of euros received from Russia’s frozen assets to help Ukraine.
It was previously reported that the United States will for the first time transfer to Ukraine the confiscated properties of sanctioned Russian oligarchs.
Source: korrespondent
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