As part of the overall support to the Slovak anti-money laundering system, the Council of Europe’s Economic Crime and Cooperation Division is providing technical assistance to help enhance the effectiveness of the confiscation measures applied by Law enforcement and judicial authorities. In this context, national practitioners dealing with criminal asset recovery, from the relevant Slovak Law enforcement, prosecutorial and judicial authorities were trained on asset recovery, confiscation modalities and asset management on 14 and 15 June 2023 in Bratislava. 

The training programme, following the recent training course on financial investigations  provided within the same project, was based on the Slovak authorities’ request for further capacity-building dedicated to confiscation modalities, in a targeted and context-sensitive manner. It was designed to strengthen the knowledge and skills of Slovak financial investigators, prosecutors and judges on asset recovery, asset management and confiscation modalities, in line with the latest international and European standards and best practices, while taking into account the current reality of the legislative framework of Slovakia. 

Over two days, 26 national practitioners thus had the opportunity to discuss and work with Council of Europe’s experts on topics related to the practical application of asset recovery, management and confiscation in the context of the fight against economic crime. The training contents focused on the latest international and European standards and practices on confiscation, asset tracing and seizure, provisional measures, non-conviction-based confiscation, post-conviction measures and mutual legal assistance. The course also included practical examples and concrete comparisons between the Slovak context and the functioning of other EU jurisdictions. 

The event also provided an opportunity for participants from different national agencies to exchange views on the national and interinstitutional coordination mechanisms currently in place in Slovakia for asset recovery and management, and the need to advance legislative reforms in this area.

This training course was part of a series of capacity-building and advisory activities on financial investigations and asset recovery provided to the Slovak authorities, within the framework of the joint TSI Project on “Enhancing the effectiveness of the AML Framework in Slovakia”, funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.