Within the framework of the 2023 Council of Europe/EU Technical Support Instrument (TSI) envelope, the Economic Crime and Cooperation Division is supporting the Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and indirectly other EU Member States, in the implementation of the EU restrictive measures. The project begun on 1 September 2023 and will last for 24 months.

Through tailored activities, the project seeks to contribute to:

• Enhancing the capacities of relevant authorities to identify directly or indirectly designated legal persons or entities;
• Strengthening the capacities of relevant authorities to access and exchange information at national and international level and with business operators. 

Areas of specific focus include a mapping of the legal framework, national institutional setup and cooperation procedures, as well as the organisation, powers and resources of National Competent Authorities (NCAs) in EU Member States regarding freezing of assets. Furthermore, the project will produce several reviews and analysis documents, such as the review of the NCAs good practices and powers in terms of freezing of assets, the analysis of beneficiary NCA’s good practices and powers in terms of cross-border and national sharing and access to information, as well as the review of procedures, good practices and challenges in examination of queries posed by EU business operators for verification of identity of designated persons and entities. Finally, the project will contribute to the development of guidelines for beneficiary NCAs to further enhance exchange of information with other NCAs and business operators, and it will organise a number of trainings and awareness-raising workshops on effective and harmonised implementation of EU restrictive measures.

The total project budget is 722,222 Euros. The project is co-funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument and Council of Europe and is and implemented by the Council of Europe (Economic Crime and Cooperation Division), in cooperation with the European Commission.

 More information on the cooperation between the EC DG REFORM and the Council of Europe can be found here.