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DRAFT OPINION (COM(2022)0245 – C90000/2022 – 2022/0167(COD))

On the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on Asset recovery and confiscation

BUDG-PA-739737

Committee on Budgets · Rapporteur: Vlad Gheorghe

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The Committee on Budgets draft opinion responds to the Commission proposal for a directive on asset recovery and confiscation. It proposes amendments to widen the crimes covered, strengthen asset recovery and management offices, and channel confiscated assets into the EU budget. It asks that confiscated assets from Russian aggression against Ukraine be transferred to the EU budget as external assigned revenue for the Rebuild Ukraine Facility, to rebuild infrastructure and compensate victims. It proposes that other confiscated criminal proceeds become a new own resource of the EU budget, based on a Commission assessment. It calls for asset recovery offices and asset management offices to have sufficient staff, budgets and IT tools, and for the European Public Prosecutor's Office to have the same access to information as national authorities.

Committee position. The Committee on Budgets calls on the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs to take into account its amendments, which widen the crimes covered, strengthen asset recovery and management offices, and channel confiscated assets into the EU budget, including for Ukraine's reconstruction.

Key points

  1. The opinion widens the scope of the directive to include the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine and associated offences, crimes against cultural heritage, sexual violence, forced prostitution and the full list of environmental crimes.
  2. It adds legal persons such as associations, businesses and NGOs to the definition of instrumentalities that can be used to commit offences.
  3. It requires member states to guarantee sufficient budgetary resources to manage frozen property where costs cannot be charged to the beneficial owner or recovered through an interlocutory sale.
  4. It requires member states to give asset recovery offices and asset management offices sufficient staff, budgets, technical and technological resources, and to publish and report their budgets annually.
  5. It requires regular training for asset recovery office staff and court-appointed administrators, including on ethics and anti-corruption, with rotation and a limited number of assignments for administrators.
  6. It asks the Commission to issue guidelines and a dedicated IT tool for the centralised registries of frozen and confiscated property, and to make statistics publicly available.
  7. It gives the European Public Prosecutor's Office the same level of access to information as national competent authorities, including direct access to SIENA and the centralised registries.
  8. It proposes that the monetary value of confiscated criminal proceeds become a new own resource of the EU budget, based on a preliminary detailed assessment by the Commission.
  9. It proposes that confiscated assets from Russian aggression against Ukraine be transferred to the EU budget as external assigned revenue for the Rebuild Ukraine Facility, to rebuild infrastructure and compensate victims.
  10. It asks that projects in Ukraine be prepared with domestic civil society organisations, include deliverables and spending guidelines, and be monitored by Parliament and the Commission through reporting and the discharge procedure.
  11. It requires member states to take measures allowing confiscated property to be used for public interest or social purposes, and to decide on the use of net proceeds except those assigned as own resources or external assigned revenue.
  12. It provides for confiscation in absentia for crimes related to Russian aggression or sanction evasion, and removes the four-year imprisonment threshold for criminal offences under Articles 15 and 16.

Who is affected

  • Member states, which must provide resources, training and budgetary guarantees for asset recovery and management offices.
  • Asset recovery offices and asset management offices, which gain access to information and must cooperate with the EPPO.
  • The European Public Prosecutor's Office, which gains the same access to information as national authorities.
  • Ukraine and its victim population, which would benefit from confiscated Russian assets through the Rebuild Ukraine Facility.
  • Legal persons such as associations, businesses and NGOs, which are added as possible instrumentalities of crime.

Figures and deadlines

  • April 7: the date the European Parliament called for the confiscation of Russian assets to finance Ukraine's reconstruction.