EU Asset Recovery and Confiscation Regime – Quo Vadis? A First Assessment of the Commission’s Proposal to Further Harmonise the EU Asset Recovery and Confiscation Laws. A Step in the Right Direction?

Abstract

This article aims to explore the key novelties of the proposal recently published by the Commission for a new Directive on asset recovery and confiscation and to offer critical reflection on certain issues. The proposed Directive intends to replace the previous Directive 2014/42/EU on freezing and confiscation and the Council Decision 2007/845/JHA on Asset Recovery Offices. The present article first clarifies the legal bases chosen for the adoption of this new EU legal instrument and shortly addresses some issues of compliance with the subsidiarity and proportionality principle. Then offers an overall analysis of the most important provisions (a) on the different asset recovery stages (asset tracing and identification, management, freezing and confiscation) (b) on the safeguards for the persons affected by such measures and (c) on the newly introduced obligation for the Member States to create a national asset recovery strategy. The article sheds also some light on the relationship between the proposed Directive and the violation of EU restrictive measures and finally concludes with some critical remarks, in order to contribute to the legal dialogue ahead of the final adoption of the new Directive.