The IPA2017 project Countering Serious Crime in the Western Balkans has supported asset recovery assessments in the Western Balkans in order to provide a good understanding of the state of play regarding the seizure and confiscation of proceeds of crime and instrumentalities of crime within the 6 beneficiaries of the project (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia). The regional summary report assesses the regional conformity with European and international legislative frameworks, the state of public awareness about asset recovery, capacity building needs to enable the beneficiaries to effectively recover assets, and provides a comparative table of the institutional and legal frameworks of the beneficiaries. The main conclusions are that in general the legislative frameworks are in place and too a large extent also in line with European and international framework. However, the process to build up institutions (like an Asset Recovery Office) and training of people dealing with asset recovery has only just started. As a result the number of successful cases in which assets could be seized and confiscated is very limited and the beneficiaries’ institutions should intensify their inter-institutional cooperation in order to make the process efficient.”
Find the report on asset recovery here