Vienna: UNODC, RAI and SEE Region Discussing Regional Policy in Asset Recovery

The Regional Policy Meeting on Asset Recovery gathered organisations and experts from SEE region on 7^th and 8^th July in Vienna, Austria.

The Regional meeting is held under the framework of the project “From Illicit Financial Flows to Asset Recovery” under the UNODC Regional Programme for South-Eastern Europe, with the support of the UK Government.  The project aims to enhance the capacity of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Kosovo under UNSCR 1244 to recover proceeds and instrumentalities of crime and to strengthen the exchange of information or evidence leading to seizures and confiscations across the participating jurisdictions. The project as well focuses on developing asset recovery roadmaps at the national and regional levels and providing support in enhancing mutual legal assistance for the purposes of asset recovery.

Head of RAI Secretariat Ms. Desislava Gotskova facilitated today’s panel “Good practices in international cooperation and MLA in asset recovery” and discussed the best practices on exchange of information and international cooperation in asset recovery cases with distinguished experts from Western Balkans.

Ministers, representatives of prosecution services, financial intelligence units, asset recovery and asset management agencies from South-Eastern Europe and other stakeholders joined the event, together with experts from the AIRE centre, the Regional Anti-corruption Initiative and UNODC.

The goal of the meeting was to explore the recent regional developments, measures and good practices in policy development, coordination, implementation, monitoring and evaluation in the area of asset recovery. It was structured in an interactive manner to enable all participants to share their views, experiences, ideas and approaches.