Thursday, 23 May 2013 - Strasbourg

Debate

Pino Arlacchi (S&D ), in writing . − This Resolution is the result of a strong political initiative led by the Socialist group. The return of misappropriated assets, stolen by former dictators and their regimes, to Arab Spring countries in transition is a moral and legal imperative and is also a highly sensitive issue in the EU’s relations with its southern neighbourhood. The restitution of frozen assets is, over and above its economic significance, a strong message against the impunity for corruption and money laundering enjoyed so far by unscrupulous political leaders. Egypt, Libya and Tunisia have made considerable efforts aimed at ensuring that these assets are repatriated but, so far, few concrete results have been achieved in this context. For this reason, with this text we ask for an EU mechanism composed of a team of national and international investigators, prosecutors, lawyers and other experts to be established without delay with the aim of providing legal and technical advice and assistance to Arab Spring countries in the process of asset recovery. I believe that this effort will be one of the most significant contributions by the EU to the consolidation of democratic transition in these three crucial countries.

[source:www.europarl.europa.eu]