The success of the sanctions put in place by the European Union in the event of embezzlement, with the aim of combating government corruption, remains very limited, according to a report by CiFAR (‘The Civil Forum for Asset Recovery') presented on Wednesday 6 March at a conference organised by Transparency International.
While the EU has imposed sanctions for embezzlement on members of the former Tunisian, Egyptian and Ukrainian regimes (see EUROPE 10310, 10341 and EUROPE 11032), requiring that all assets relating to the persons concerned be frozen in all Member States, "Our research shows that [...] the success in recovering assets from the EU Member States has been very limited and the application of these sanctions have been inconsistent and opaque", said Agatino Camarda, CiFAR Director.
The main reason for this failure, according to the report, is that European courts have often ruled in favour of annulling sanctions because of insufficient evidence. This is due in particular to the fact that the EU Council relied excessively on evidence provided by Egypt, Tunisia and Ukraine, while the judicial systems of these countries suffered from political interference and limited investigative capacity.
Laure Brillaud, Policy Officer at Transparency International, recalled that, according to a Europol report, between 2010 and 2014, only 2.2% of the funds generated by crime in the EU were provisionally seized or frozen and only 1.1% of these funds were finally confiscated.
According to her, "Sanctions are not enough. They need to be translated into the actual confiscation of stolen assets and their return to the people to whom they belong.
In addition, at the conference, Transparency International and CiFAR announced the launch of an online platform allowing individuals and companies to easily access information on European sanctions for embezzlement and on the people in Ukraine, Egypt and Tunisia who are subject to these sanctions.
With regard to Ukraine, the Council of the EU recently extended for one year the freezing of the assets of twelve persons identified as responsible for the misappropriation of public funds in the country or guilty of abuse of power causing a loss to Ukrainian public funds (see EUROPE 12206).
The report is available at: https://bit.ly/2TynAb1.
Link to the platform website: https://bit.ly/2ITRjqU. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot - intern)