Activites

• 1998/12/09 Final act published in Official Journal
• #2146
• 1998/12/03 Council Meeting
• 1998/12/03 End of procedure in Parliament
• 1998/12/03 Act adopted by Council after consultation of Parliament
• 1998/07/17 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
  • T4-0458/1998 summary

    In adopting the report by Mr Leoluca ORLANDO (Greens, I) on the draft joint action concerning the fight against organised crime, Parliament amended the basic text by improving and rendering more efficient the means of identifying, seizing or confiscating illegal assets, including in cases where the person responsible for the crime has died or has absconded. In particular it requested: - as part of the identification procedure intended to trace illegally obtained assets, that each Member States should have free and direct access to any information that was publicly accessible in another Member State; - that each Member State should ensure that its legislation and procedures enabled it to permit the confiscation of the instrumentalities and the proceeds from crime and of property, the value of which corresponds to such proceeds both in purely domestic proceedings and in proceedings instituted at the request of another Member State; - if in identifying and tracing illegally obtained assets there would be infringement of the protected rights of persons or institutions, court decisions would be required in the requesting and the receiving Member State; - mutual legal assistance with regard to illegal asset identification, tracing and confiscation should be given the same priority as was given to such measures in domestic proceedings; - improved direct contact should be achieved between investigators, investigating magistrates and prosecutors; - in order to minimise the risk of illegal assets being dissipated, the Member States should be invited to draw up a catalogue of data which legal requests for confiscating instrumentalities and freezing the proceeds from crime must contain. Seizure of instrumentalities and the freezing of proceeds from crime must be justified within an appropriate period, not exceeding one year, by a decision of the requesting Member State ordering the confiscation of the seized or frozen assets. Parliament also requested that an appeal against the decision by the receiving Member State should not have suspensory effect. It considered that the seizure or freezing should be lifted only if a court decision adopted following an appeal required it. It also called for enquiries to be able to be pursued in another judicial region than that in which the initial request was made. It was also necessary to establish provisions to ensure that the decisions of another Member State might be implemented with regard to the seizure of certain assets. Lastly, Parliament hoped that the Court of Justice would be recognised as competent to issue preliminary rulings concerning interpretation of this Joint Action. �

• 1998/06/03 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
  • A4-0222/1998
• 1998/03/30 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 1998/03/03 Legislative proposal published
  • 06490/1998 summary

    OBJECTIVE: joint action to increase cooperation between the Member States with regard to confiscating the proceeds of crime in the context of the European Action Plan to combat organized crime (see COS0548). SUBSTANCE: With a view to improving coordination between the Member States' law enforcement authorities in the context of combating organized crime, this proposed joint action aims to increase cooperation in identifying, tracing, freezing or seizing and confiscating the means and proceeds of crime. Operating on the principle that criminal activities can be disrupted if the assets of criminal organizations are confiscated, the project sets up a system for exchanging information through establishing national contact points from which the Member States' competent authorities can obtain advice and assistance with regard to confiscating the proceeds of crime. These contact points are indicated in the relevant guides which are to be distributed to Europol and the European Judicial Network,. which will evaluate them and make any useful proposals to improve cooperation in this area. As well as improving information, the proposal establishes the principle that the Member States will give the same priority to requests from other Member States concerning the confiscation of assets as they would in domestic proceedings. Contacts between investigators, examining magistrates and prosecutors are also encouraged if this does not contravene national laws. There are also provisions to ensure that requests for mutual judicial assistance are only made when necessary. If urgent action is justified, requests for mutual assistance will be made to the other Member States, which must consider them and give an appropriate response. In most cases, the Member States will prefer to use the existing cooperation arrangements. There are also provisions to minimize the risk that the assets of criminal organizations will dissipated. �

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: 06490/1998
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A4-0222/1998
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T4-0458/1998

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)