On Friday 8 December, European Ministers for Justice decided on the position they would take on the draft regulation introducing the mutual recognition mechanism for decisions involving the freezing and confiscation of criminal assets, made by the member states (see EUROPE 11694).
This is indeed a regulation and not directive that the ministers ultimately agreed upon, in an effort to ensure that the rules are applied in a uniform way throughout European territory. The European Commissioner for Justice, Věra Jourová, welcomed this fact.
Although several member states expressed reservations about the choice of a regulation (see EUROPE 11920), it was only Germany that did not agree on the general approach proposed, claiming that the legal form chosen would not allow for the effective protection of fundamental rights.
The other member states, however, thought the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the EU's compromise satisfactory, which explains in the text that the legal form chosen does not constitute a precedent for future legislative instruments in this domain.
The agreement of principle adopted extends the scope of the regulation to individuals with criminal ties and the preventive confiscation of criminal assets (see EUROPE 11882). It also emphasises the primacy of the victim’s right to compensation and the restitution to the implementing and issuing member states of the confiscation order. According to the Estonian Minister for Justice, Urmas Reinsalu, the member states have therefore sent out an important message that, "crime does not pay". (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)