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(54) An effective recovery system requires the concerted efforts of a wide range of authorities, including law enforcement, inclusive of customs authorities, tax authorities and tax recovery authorities to the extent that they are competent in relation to asset recovery, asset recovery offices, judicial authorities and asset management authorities, including asset management offices. In order to ensure coordinated action by all competent authorities, it is necessary to establish a more strategic approach to asset recovery and promote a greater cooperation between the relevant authorities, and to obtain a clear overview of the results of asset recovery. It is also necessary to ensure closer and more effective cooperation between asset recovery offices and asset management offices and their counterparts in other Member States. For that purpose, Member States should adopt and regularly review a national strategy on asset recovery to guide actions in relation to financial investigations, freezing and confiscation, management, and final disposal of the relevant instrumentalities, proceeds or property. Member States can decide on the appropriate format of such a strategy and take into account their constitutional framework. This Directive should establish the elements to be included in such a strategy, such as a description of the roles and responsibilities of all the competent authorities involved in asset recovery, and the arrangements for coordination and cooperation among them, without determining the concrete type of information to be included in that strategy. Furthermore, Member States should provide competent authorities with the necessary resources to be able to fulfil their tasks effectively. Competent authorities should be understood as the authorities entrusted with the carrying out of the tasks as outlined under this Directive and in accordance with national frameworks.

(55) Member States should ensure that asset management offices, and where appropriate asset recovery offices and other competent authorities performing tasks pursuant to this Directive, are able to swiftly obtain information necessary for the efficient management of frozen and confiscated property. For that purpose, Member States should establish efficient tools such as one or more registers of property frozen and confiscated pursuant to this Directive.

(56) In order to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the asset recovery, asset management and confiscation framework, it is necessary to collect and publish a comparable minimum set of appropriate statistical data on freezing, management and confiscation of property.

(57) In order to support the Commission in relation to the implementation of this Directive and facilitate cooperation among asset recovery offices and asset management offices as well as to exchange best practices, a cooperation network on asset recovery and confiscation should be established. That network should be composed of representatives from asset recovery offices and asset management offices and should be chaired by the Commission and, where appropriate, by Europol. The Commission could invite representatives from Eurojust, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (the EPPO) and, where appropriate, the Anti-Money Laundering Authority to participate in the meetings of that network.

(58) Organised criminal groups operate across borders and increasingly acquire property in Member States other than those in which they are based and in third countries. Given the transnational dimension of organised crime, international cooperation is of the essence to recover the profits and confiscate the financial assets that enable criminals to operate. Member States should therefore ensure that both asset recovery and asset management offices cooperate, to the greatest extent possible, with their counterparts in third countries to trace, identify and manage instrumentalities, proceeds or property which is or might become the object of a freezing or confiscation order within the framework of proceedings in criminal matters. It is important that Member States make use of existing frameworks for cooperation and are encouraged to develop or adjust existing bilateral agreements, to accede to existing multilateral conventions or, where no other arrangement is in place, to establish new bilateral agreements. The data protection rules set out in Directive (EU) 2016/680 and, where relevant, in Regulation (EU) 2016/679 are applicable in relation to measures taken in that respect.

(59) Asset recovery offices and asset management offices should also closely cooperate with Union bodies and agencies, including Europol, Eurojust and the EPPO, within their respective competences and in accordance with the applicable legal framework, insofar as it is necessary to trace and identify property within the cross-border investigations supported by Europol and Eurojust or within the investigations undertaken by the EPPO. Member States should, in accordance with their respective obligations under Council Regulation (EU) 2017/1939 , ensure that their asset recovery offices fulfil the relevant obligations set out in Regulation (EU) 2017/1939.

(60) In order to ensure that there is a common understanding and minimum standards for asset tracing and identification, freezing, confiscation and management, this Directive should lay down minimum rules for the relevant measures as well as related safeguards. The adoption of minimum rules does not prevent Member States from granting more extensive powers to asset recovery offices or to asset management offices, from providing for more extensive rules on freezing and confiscation, or from providing for additional safeguards under national law, provided that such national measures and provisions do not undermine the objective of this Directive.

(61) Since the objective of this Directive, namely facilitating confiscation of property in proceedings in criminal matters, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective.

(62) As this Directive provides for a comprehensive set of rules, which would overlap with already existing legal instruments, it should replace Council Joint Action 98/699/JHA , Council Framework Decision 2001/500/JHA , Framework Decision 2005/212/JHA, Decision 2007/845/JHA, and Directive 2014/42/EU with regard to the Member States bound by this Directive.

(63) In accordance with Articles 1 and 2 of Protocol No 22 on the position of Denmark, annexed to the TEU and to the TFEU, Denmark is not taking part in the adoption of this Directive and is not bound by it or subject to its application.

(64) In accordance with Articles 1 and 2 and Article 4a(1) of Protocol No 21 on the position of the United Kingdom and Ireland in respect of the area of freedom, security and justice, annexed to the TEU and to the TFEU, and without prejudice to Article 4 of that Protocol, Ireland is not taking part in the adoption of this Directive and is not bound by it or subject to its application.

(65) The European Data Protection Supervisor was consulted in accordance with Article 42(1) and (2) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council and delivered an opinion on 19 July 2022 ,

(1) Europol’s 2021 Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA) highlighted the rising threat from organised crime and criminal infiltration. Driven by the large revenue generated by organised crime, which amounts to at least EUR 139 billion every year and which is increasingly laundered through a parallel underground financial system, the availability of proceeds from criminal activities poses a significant threat to the integrity of the economy and society, eroding the rule of law and fundamental rights. According to the Communication from the Commission of 14 April 2021 on the EU Strategy to tackle Organised Crime 2021-2025, that strategy aims to address challenges posed by organised crime by promoting cross-border cooperation and information exchange, supporting effective investigations of criminal networks, eliminating proceeds from criminal activities, and making law enforcement and judiciary fit for the digital age.

(2) The main motive for criminal organisations that operate across borders, including high-risk criminal networks, is financial gain. In order to tackle the serious threat posed by organised crime, it is important that competent authorities are, therefore, given more operational capacity and the necessary means to effectively trace and identify, freeze, confiscate and manage the instrumentalities and proceeds of crime or property that stem from criminal activities.