Monitoring

The independent civil monitoring is a tool for effective public control over assets confiscation procedures in three EU Member States – Bulgaria, Romania and Italy. The monitoring provided for objective assessment of the level in which the work of confiscation bodies is based on the principles of transparency, efficiency, integrity and accountability. In the course of the monitoring good practices and deficiencies in the practice and procedure have been identified. A catalogue of recommendations to improve the legislation and its implementation by the Institutions have been elaborated in order to provide for better results.

In the scope, the monitoring focused on the Asset Recovery Offices in the three countries, as well as other relevant institutions involved in asset confiscation procedures – courts, prosecutors’ offices, ministries of interior, tax and customs authorities, national security agencies, etc.

Each project partner carried out a 10-month independent civil monitoring over the work of the AROs based on common methodology and set of indicators for monitoring, elaborated for the purpose. At the output two publications have been elaborated: a comparative report compiling the findings from the monitoring and a policy paper addressing main loopholes and deficiencies of the confiscation procedures regulation at EU level.