Ensuring that crime does not pay: Commission launches public consultation to review EU rules on seizing criminals’ profits

Organised crime generates large profits, and with only about 1% of criminal proceeds confiscated in the EU today, criminals use illicit earnings to increase their reach and infiltrate the legal economy and public institutions, posing a threat to the rule of law. The Commission is launching today a public consultation on recovering and confiscating criminal assets, with the objective of reinforcing the tools that enable national authorities to trace, freeze and confiscate those assets. National, regional and local authorities, civil society organisations, businesses and private individuals are invited to contribute until 27 September 2021. The results of the consultation will feed into the upcoming evaluation and revision of EU rules on the freezing and confiscation of the proceeds of crime and on asset recovery offices. These initiatives form part of the EU Strategy to tackle Organised Crime and aim at depriving criminals of their illicit earnings, reducing the incentives that feed serious and organised crime and limiting the ability of criminals to reinvest such profits towards further crime. Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, has also published a blog article today encouraging all interested parties to contribute the consultation.