Brussels, 20/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - As we had announced yesterday, the Justice and Home Affairs Council reached political agreements on Thursday on corruption in the private sector and the seizure of goods and assets connected to criminal pursuits. These agreements will become final once the various parliamentary reservations expressed by the Member States have been waived.
Framework decision on corruption in the private sector. This text will allow corruption to be defined and penalised in a relatively harmonised way throughout the EU. Passive or active corruption should be punishable by a prison sentence of at least 1 to 3 years, with the possibility of temporarily banning the exercise of a similar professional activity. For legal persons involved in corruption, the punishment could be exclusion from all public aid, the temporary or definitive ban on exercising certain commercial activities, the placing under judiciary control or a judicial decision of closure. Aiding or abetting such acts would also be punished. In order to reach an agreement, the Fifteen found a compromise on Thursday on the last stumbling block, agreeing with the countries that support the possibility of a five year period for limiting application of this text to cases of competition distortion in the purchase of goods and commercial services. Germany, and a priori Italy, should take advantage of the derogation. Its renewal will not be automatic but will depend on a Council decision.
Corruption is defined by the framework decision as being, where professional activities are concerned, the fact of promising, offering or giving, directly or through an intermediary, to a person who heads or works for a private sector entity, an undue advantage of any kind, for that person or for a third person, so that this person undertakes or does not undertake an act in violation of the duties of that person, and the fact, either directly or through an intermediary, of calling for or receiving an undue advantage of any kind, or accepting the promise of such an advantage for oneself or for a third person when one heads or works for a private sector entity, in breach of one's duties.
Proposal for a framework directive relating to the seizure of the proceeds of crime. This text provides for all Member States to include in their legislation the possibility of confiscating income that comes from acts liable to at least one year imprisonment. Above all, for infringements committed in the context of a criminal organisation or in connection with terrorism, and which are of a kind that generates financial gain, the member States should provide for seizure of the assets of the condemned person, even if there is no formal proof that such goods are linked to the infringement in question, on condition that a national court is fully convinced that such goods derive from that person's criminal activity. The text provides for the possibility to confiscate the goods of the spouse or concubine and of legal persons. Discussions made far less progress on the subject of the recognition and execution of orders to confiscate issued by the court of another Member State. The Justice Ministers proceeded to a first exchange of views on Thursday in relation to the sharing of confiscated goods. A majority of delegations said they were in favour of a standard breakdown taking into account the expenditure engaged by the forces of law and order that should implement the confiscation decided in another Member State, it was said in Council.