Freezing ORders and Confiscation orders: Effort for common standards

FORCE aims at improving judicial cooperation in the recovery of illicit assets. Regulation (EU) 2018/1805 has introduced freezing and confiscation orders, together with standardized forms. However, it leaves room to different national implementation strategies that are already emerging. This Project will gather and study these arrangements through an exhaustive desk research and through semistructured interviews to be held with selected practitioners. The results of the study will be presented in a comparative report on the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2018/1805 and they will be developed in three main directions. First, the national procedures will be organized and published on a devoted section of FORCE’s digital ecosystem – a set of ICT tools integrated in the Project’s website. European practitioners will be able to rely on an updated database on national practices, where they will find the description of the inner freezing and confiscation instruments, relevant contact information on national authorities and practical instructions on how to successfully deliver a freezing/confiscation order. Second, FORCE will share the results of the desk research through a Virtual Learning Environment that will host a Massive Online Open Course and Case simulations, in order to raise awareness on the Regulation and to bridge national discrepancies or lack of training. A simpler version of the content will be also disseminated through FORCE’s podcasts in order to reach a larger audience. Third, FORCE will develop a model of cooperation in order to picture a “best-case scenario”. The project’s staff will draft a provisional version of Common Practical Standards and Recommendations, to be discussed with practitioners through a devoted section of FORCE’s digital ecosystem – FORCE Community – and through seminars and focus groups. After a thorough confrontation, the final version of the standards and recommendations on freezing and confiscation orders will be delivered.

FORCE aims at increasing the awareness at EU level of the importance of the recently entered in force Regulation (EU) 2018/1805, and facilitating its consistent application, thereby strengthening judicial cooperation on criminal matters at EU level. The main impacts of FORCE will be: a) enhancing the practitioners’ mutual knowledge, comprehension and trust, through the common KSR made available in FORCE digital Ecosystem; b) fostering the fundamental role of practitioners as key actors in the implementation process of the Regulation, by an innovative codesign approach (FC tool) that will directly involve them in the elaboration of common standards to be proposed to EUpolicy makers. Moreover, FORCE project will have either a direct impact on EU practitioners, who are the direct users of the Digital Ecosystem, either an indirect impact to a larger audience, due to the capacity of the implemented ICT tools to disseminate the project’s outputs in all the EU countries. Despite the significant steps towards a better cooperation between national authorities in cross-border asset recovery, the principle of mutual recognition assumed by the Regulation faces the profound differences still existing in this field among the legislations of the MS, unanimously recognized broader than in any other area of criminal law. No Regulation, notwithstanding its formal legal force, can represent a clean slate for the extremely fragmented approaches on confiscation measures in force at each national level. Differences still act as obstacles for any requested country to execute foreign confiscation orders and represent ultimately serious hindrances for a successful cooperation that must be considered and removed. Against this situation, FORCE will develop shared procedural standards that will be made available to all stakeholders. Being the first project of such scale to address the issues and shortcomings concerning the practical application of the Regulation on national and international level, it aims at kick starting the public and expert discourse on the transposition and practical application of the Regulation. All the impacts described will contribute together to achieving the aims of the EU to intensify mutual learning, exchange of good practices, cooperation, including identifying best practices among MS. EU dimension of the cooperation will increase the impact of the project across national borders.