Streamlining inter-institutional cooperation between Agency for Administration of Sequestrated and Confiscated Assets (AMSCA), Prosecution and Judiciary was the topic of the meeting organised by PECK III Project on 18 March 2021. Representatives of the AMSCA, Office of State Prosecutor, Judicial and Prosecutorial Council and EU benefited from discussions with Council of Europe experts in efforts to identify obstacles to cooperation in the process of disposal of sequestrated and confiscated assets and modalities for improvement.

Main shortcomings included issues such as lack of planning in the pre sequestration phase, hesitation to dispose assets at early stages to avoid value deprecation, more frequent use of freezing instead of sequestration, especially in low value assets, establishment of the confiscation fund and social re-use of sequestrated and confiscated assets. Moreover, changing the mindset of judges and prosecutors that sale of sequestrated assets prejudices the innocence of defendants was noted to be at the core of the problem requiring proactive discussion and robust awareness raising.

Findings from this meeting will serve the compressive assessment of AMSCA and identification of possible areas to strengthen the institutional cooperation between AMSCA, prosecution and judiciary.

The meeting was conducted in hybrid manner to facilitate beneficiaries who are lacking proper IT facilities to conduct online meetings.