Package on protection of the licit economy
CIVEX-V/033
Package on protection of the licit economy
THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
- welcomes the European Commission's proposals, which group together coherently the legislative measures and strategies to be implemented in order offer the licit economy useful and rapid protection;
- endorses the Commission's initiatives aimed at preventing unwholesome practices such as conflicts of interest, favouritism and corruption by incriminating forms of behaviour that are still not penalised in some Member States and that obstruct free access to public contracts;
- supports the implementation of a new evaluation mechanism, the EU's future Anti-Corruption Report, to be published every two years, starting in 2013;
- welcomes the draft directive on the freezing and confiscation of criminal proceeds in the EU, as these are indispensable instruments for protecting the global economy, ensuring that "crime does not pay" and that "ill-gotten gains never prosper";
- approves of the reasoning behind the Stockholm Programme whereby it is preferable to make minimum standards under TFEU Article 83 compulsory (including extended confiscation, value confiscation, third party confiscation and confiscation without criminal conviction) rather than seeking to improve the EU's current mechanism, which has no real power;
- calls on Member States to provide for a share of the criminal assets seized to be returned to local and/or regional authorities (once legal claims for recovery have been met) as they are the first victims of criminal organisations that destabilise the social order at local level. They are also best placed to take local-level measures to eradicate the deep-rooted causes of crime. This is one way of showing the work of public authorities in a positive light and creating a virtuous cycle involving elected representatives, civil society and families;
- would encourage local and regional elected representatives to sign a code of ethics entitled "Obliti privatorum, publica curate" (forget private affairs, take care of public ones), which would help to build and preserve a relationship of trust between the public and those governing them;
- encourages elected representatives to submit a declaration of income regarding their properties and their commercial or business interests to an independent public authority.
- welcomes the European Commission's proposals, which group together coherently the legislative measures and strategies to be implemented in order offer the licit economy useful and rapid protection;
- endorses the Commission's initiatives aimed at preventing unwholesome practices such as conflicts of interest, favouritism and corruption by incriminating forms of behaviour that are still not penalised in some Member States and that obstruct free access to public contracts;
- supports the implementation of a new evaluation mechanism, the EU's future Anti-Corruption Report, to be published every two years, starting in 2013;
- welcomes the draft directive on the freezing and confiscation of criminal proceeds in the EU, as these are indispensable instruments for protecting the global economy, ensuring that "crime does not pay" and that "ill-gotten gains never prosper";
- approves of the reasoning behind the Stockholm Programme whereby it is preferable to make minimum standards under TFEU Article 83 compulsory (including extended confiscation, value confiscation, third party confiscation and confiscation without criminal conviction) rather than seeking to improve the EU's current mechanism, which has no real power;
- calls on Member States to provide for a share of the criminal assets seized to be returned to local and/or regional authorities (once legal claims for recovery have been met) as they are the first victims of criminal organisations that destabilise the social order at local level. They are also best placed to take local-level measures to eradicate the deep-rooted causes of crime. This is one way of showing the work of public authorities in a positive light and creating a virtuous cycle involving elected representatives, civil society and families;
- would encourage local and regional elected representatives to sign a code of ethics entitled "Obliti privatorum, publica curate" (forget private affairs, take care of public ones), which would help to build and preserve a relationship of trust between the public and those governing them;
- encourages elected representatives to submit a declaration of income regarding their properties and their commercial or business interests to an independent public authority.
