"We are today sending a strong signal:
crime will no longer pay. Criminals will no longer be able to exploit loopholes
within the EU to move their assets and avoid freezing or confiscation orders.
It will also help us prevent that those funds are used to finance new criminal
activities, including terrorism."
Tsetska Tsacheva, Bulgarian minister of Justice
The main features of the new rules as agreed by both institutions include:
- A single regulation covering freezing and confiscation
orders, directly applicable in the EU. This will resolve the issues linked
to the implementation of the existing instruments, which have led to
insufficient mutual recognition.
- The general principle of mutual recognition, meaning
that all judicial decisions in criminal matters taken in one EU country
will normally be directly recognised and, enforced by another member
state. The regulation only sets out a limited number of grounds for
non-recognition and non-execution. The institutions agreed on the
inclusion of a ground for non-recognition based on fundamental rights but
under very strict conditions.
- A wide scope of types of confiscation in criminal
matters such as value based confiscation and non-conviction based
confiscation, including certain systems of preventive confiscation,
provided that there is a link to a criminal offence.
- Standard certificates and procedures to allow for
speedy and efficient freezing and confiscation actions.
- A deadline of 45 days for the recognition of a
confiscation order and in urgent case a deadline of 48 hours for the
recognition and 48 hours for the execution of freezing orders. Those
limits can be postponed under strict conditions detailed in the
regulation.
- Provisions to ensure that victims' rights to
compensation and restitution are respected in cross-border cases.
Next steps
After confirmation of the political agreement reached today by representatives of the Council
and the Parliament, the text will undergo linguistic revision and subsequently be formally
adopted by the two institutions.
The new rules will apply 24 months after the entry into force of the regulation.
20/6/2018 | PRESS RELEASE - Council of the European Union