Brussels, 28/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the Fifteen reached a consensus on the draft framework-decision on the freeze of assets and proof. Unconvinced, the Italian Justice Minister, Roberto Castelli finally accepted the text, while stipulating that the decision was now in the hands of the Italian Parliament. Other than Italy, Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom must also submit the text to their parliaments. The European Parliament will also need consulting again.
The framework-decision organises the recognition and execution in Member States of an injunction for the freeze of assets and proof issued by the judiciary of another Member State. For a list of 32 infringements (the same as for the European arrest warrant: terrorism, trafficking in human beings, corruption, racism…), and on condition that the infringement in question may be the subject of a sentence of at least three years in prison, the order will be automatically carried out, without the country to which it is addressed being able to refuse, arguing that the deeds in question are not penalised in the same way in their own legislation. For other infringements, it will still be possible to refuse, invoking the absence of the condition of double incrimination. Precautionary clauses have been introduced in the text. The text's first article recalls that the order to freeze assets must respect Article VI of the Treaty on the EU's fundamental values. Another article underlines that the legal authorities of a country to which the request is made may refuse to carry it out if the request infringes the principle of ne bis in idem (by which one cannot be sentenced twice for the same deeds). A recital has also been added to the decision's preamble to recall the respect of the principle of legality, subsidiarity and proportionality. This recital was aimed at gaining Italy over, which wanted a country to be able to refuse carrying out a request if the latter endangered its "essential interests". This new proposal is expected to take effect on 31 December 2002.
During the session, the Italian Minister had asked for a break in the session to phone the head of his government, Silvio Berlusconi. When he returned, he provided his agreement. "It is a text that we don't like at all", he told the press, adding that it was now up to the Italian Parliament to decide and examine the text's constitutional implications. The German Minister of Justice, Herta Dauber-Gmelin, was particularly critical of her counterpart, who she described as being "terribly alone". For the second time, there was a suspicion that possible personal considerations of the head of government had led Italy to adopt a particular stance, she declared, when arriving at the Council, alluding to Rome's attitude at the time of talks on the European arrest warrant.