Ensuring a Common Approach: the new EU Proposal for a Directive on Asset Recovery and Confiscation

• Jurisdiction: European Union
• Year: 2025

Speaker

Javier Castillejos Alsina is a senior expert in European public policy with over fifteen years of experience in EU affairs. He currently serves in the Directorate General for Home Affairs at the European Commission, where he has been part of the Counter-Terrorism unit since 2016. His work focuses on the intersection of internal security, radicalisation prevention, and cross-border cooperation within the EU framework.

Prior to this role, Javier spent a decade as a policy officer at the European Commission, primarily within the energy and security domains. He contributed to the development and implementation of key initiatives on energy resilience, security of supply, and external energy relations, particularly in the context of EU enlargement and neighbourhood policy.

Javier holds a BA in Political Science and has complemented his academic background with extensive field experience in multilateral negotiations, inter-institutional coordination, and strategic policy design at the European level.

Topic

Javier Castillejos’s presentation at the ERA Conference on EU Criminal Law introduces the proposed Directive on Asset Recovery and Confiscation, aimed at modernizing and strengthening the EU’s response to organized crime. The presentation provides an overview of the systemic shortcomings in asset recovery, highlighting that only around 1% of criminal proceeds are effectively confiscated across the EU.

In this EU-presentation, Castillejos outlines key innovations in the Directive, including improved asset tracing via enhanced access to databases by Asset Recovery Offices (AROs), strict procedural deadlines (8 hours for urgent freezing), and a broader set of confiscation tools—ranging from non-conviction-based to unexplained wealth confiscation. He also stresses the importance of robust safeguards.

The proposal introduces structured asset management through dedicated Asset Management Offices (AMOs), pre-seizure planning, and...