EC: Bulgaria Fails in Prevention of Cross-border Crime

EU Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Viviane Reding, says half of the EU Member States fail to implement rules that allow for confiscation of criminal assets abroad. Photo by BGNES

The European Commission has issued a call for halting cross-border crime by implementing common rules for property confiscation.

EU rules, in force since 2006, (Council Framework Decision 2006/783/JHA90) allow Member States to obtain the confiscation of criminal assets abroad.

However, according to a report of the EU Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Viviane Reding, half of EU countries have yet to put these rules in place.

The report points out as examples Italy where last month the authorities confiscated EUR 60 M of mafia assets and the UK where GBP 92.3 M was seized from an international crime ring with property in Dubai. Due to poor implementation of the rules and red tape in 14 EU countries, assets – whether property, laundered money or stolen cars – of a criminal organization prosecuted in France are safe in Slovakia or Bulgaria, the report notes.

Under EU rules, one EU country can send a confiscation order to another country where the subject of the order lives or has property or income. The other country directly carries out the confiscation, under its own national rules, without any further formality.

However, Reding’s report shows that by February 2010 only 13 of the 27 EU countries have put the rules in place. Although the deadline for implementing the measures was 24 November 2008, seven countries told the Commission that the legislative process was still underway, while the other seven, including Bulgaria, gave no information.

"In a time of economic crisis, it is unfortunate that EU Member States are letting billions of euro worth of convicted criminals' assets slip through the net. This happens even though governments agreed on confiscation measures four years ago. The unwillingness of many Member States to comply with Council Framework Decisions, to which they all have agreed, makes it clear – once again – why the EU’s area of justice needed the Lisbon Treaty. In future, we must have clearer rules, more consistent application and enforcement and – above all – trust between justice systems. In the meantime, I call on Member States to put the anti-crime rules in place so that the justice authorities can work together and effectively attack criminals' ill-gotten gains," Reding points out.

The 13 Member States that have put the rules in place are already using them to fight crime. Justice authorities in the Netherlands, for example, have sent 121 confiscation orders to counterparts across the EU since the rules were in force, for assets worth a total of almost EUR 20 M.

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