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1. Member States shall take the necessary measures to enable the freezing of property necessary to ensure a possible confiscation of that property under Articles 12 to 16. The freezing measures shall consist of freezing orders and immediate action.

2. Immediate action shall be taken where necessary in order to preserve the property until a freezing order has been issued. Where immediate action does not take the form of a freezing order, Member States shall limit the temporary validity of that immediate action.

3. Without prejudice to the powers of other competent authorities, Member States shall enable asset recovery offices to take immediate action pursuant to paragraph 2 where there is an imminent risk of the disappearance of the property that those offices have traced and identified in the exercise of their tasks pursuant to Article 5(2), point (b). The validity of such immediate action shall not exceed seven working days.

4. Member States shall ensure that freezing measures are taken only by a competent authority and that the reasons for such measures are set out in the relevant decision or recorded in the case file if the freezing measure is not ordered in writing.

5. The freezing order shall remain in force only for as long as necessary to preserve the property with a view to possible subsequent confiscation. Frozen property which is not subsequently confiscated shall be unfrozen without undue delay. The conditions or procedural rules under which such property is unfrozen shall be determined by national law.