Considerations on COM(2024)177 - - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2024)177 - . |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2024)177 |
| date | April 17, 2024 |
(2) On 23 November 2023, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted the Terms of Reference establishing the Committee of Experts on Criminal Asset Recovery. The Committee of Experts on Criminal Asset Recovery is entrusted, under the authority of the Committee of Ministers and the European Committee on Crime Problems, to elaborate an additional Protocol supplementing the Council of Europe Convention on laundering, search, seizure and confiscation of the proceeds from crime and on the financing of terrorism. This work was proposed to start on 29 May 2024 and to be completed by the end of 2025.
(3) According to the Terms of Reference, the envisaged additional Protocol is likely to contain provisions "to enhance certainty and consistency in the sharing of confiscated assets between States Parties in transnational cases, provisions to ensure efficient and effective management of seized, confiscated and repatriated assets, including the execution of confiscation decisions, provisions to facilitate the introduction of non-conviction-based confiscation procedures and of extended confiscation in criminal matters, including cooperation regarding and execution of requests in transnational cases and any other issue which it deems to be of consequence to strengthen co-operation among Parties with respect to asset recovery”.
(4) The Union has already adopted common rules that overlap to a large extent with certain elements being considered for the content of the envisaged additional Protocol. Those common rules include in particular the Directive on asset recovery and confiscation and Regulation 2018/18053 on the mutual recognition of freezing orders and confiscation orders Moreover, Framework Decisions 2003/577/JHA4 and 2006/783/JHA5 remain applicable in the relations between certain Member States. Therefore, the area of criminal asset recovery is an area already covered to a large extent by Union rules which risk being affected or altered in scope by the elements being considered for the envisaged additional Protocol.
(5) Therefore, the Union should participate in the negotiations on an additional Protocol supplementing the Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism (CETS No. 198).