Strasbourg, 23/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 24 May, the European Parliament urged the EU and its member states “to deploy significant fresh efforts” in order to facilitate the recovery “in a reasonable timeframe” of the assets stolen by the former regimes of the Arab Spring countries (particularly Egypt, Libya and Tunisia) from their populations. In a joint resolution that they adopted, the MEPs encourage the national offices for recovering the assets in all the member states to work in close collaboration, and to develop their relations with the relevant authorities in the countries concerned in order to help them in the complex legal procedures involved. The MEPs also ask the European External Action Service to play an active role in leading the recovery of assets “especially in the coordination of the member states' efforts”.
Parliament also encourages the European member states - as France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom have already done - to publish a guide containing a complete description of their national legal systems as regards the recovery of assets, and to establish a joint body of principles at EU level. Parliament calls, too, for the “immediate creation” by the EU of a sustainable mechanism, bringing together a team of investigators, prosecutors, lawyers and other national and international experts, in order to provide legal and technical advice, and aid to the Arab Spring countries throughout the process of recovery.
“The recovery of assets constitutes an essential element of the EU's support to the democratic transition and to the economic relaunch in these countries” and in strengthening mutual trust, MEPs believe. They add that that recovery of assets “constitutes, beyond its economic importance, a moral and legal imperative” (our translation throughout). (CG/transl.fl)