Brussels, 07/12/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 7 December, in Brussels, European justice ministers set out the broad lines of their future agreement on the freezing and confiscation of the assets of organised criminal groups, a proposal that had been put forward by the European Commission in March 2012 (see EUROPE 10572). The directive must allow relevant national authorities to freeze or confiscate the goods and profits of criminal groups - even before conviction has been pronounced.
According to the compromise adopted on Friday, an assets freeze or confiscation would, however, only be made in two specific cases, namely in the event of chronic illness of a suspect or his flight and trial in abstentia. The Commission has suggested that such provisions should also apply to the assets of persons deceased. This “easing” of the proposal can perhaps be explained by the fear felt by a number of member states that their property rights might be brought into question, a Council source suggests.
Another aspect of the compromise is the way in which assets freezing and confiscation may be ordered. Each country will be able to keep its own system, with the decision coming from an administrative agency or authority, as is the case in Ireland, or from a criminal court. The compromise nonetheless states that the rationale of these rulings is regularly assessed by a court or another judiciary body. During a press briefing with a number of journalists on Thursday, the Irish justice minister, Alan Shatter, cited the example of his country where an administrative agency is responsible for recording the assets of criminal groups. He said that all fundamental rights safeguards had been set in place which, in his view, reduced to nothing any possibility of error or of seizing the assets of persons who, in the end, are found to be innocent.
Ireland's priority is to take this proposal forward, and the compromise reached on Friday will allow talks to be launched with the European Parliament. Some countries, however, have not showed much enthusiasm, such as Italy, one source said. Rome is reported to have expressed the wish for a far more ambitious directive which openly tackles the matter of reusing assets seized or frozen with member states remaining free, at this stage, to define by themselves the use of assets seized. Italy stood out for advocating re-use of assets to the benefit of social works.
According to United Nations figures, the total amount of proceeds from crime reached nearly $2,100 billion in 2009, i.e. 3.6% of global GDP this year. While most “dirty” money is laundered and reinvested in the legal economy, under 1% of the proceeds from crime is, at present, frozen and confiscated. Within the EU, it is thus considered that sales of illegal drugs within the Union generate €100 billion annually. And, for Italy alone, the proceeds of organised crime are estimated at €150 billion annually. In 2009, the Commission states, the Italian authorities proceeded to a temporary freeze of assets of criminal origin amounting to a value of nearly €800 million. In 2009, in Germany, the authorities confiscated €113 million in proceeds from organised crime. (SP/transl.jl)