This Quick Guide explains why effective, transparent and fair management of seized and confiscated assets – including assets linked to sanctions violations – is essential to successful asset recovery. It introduces key principles, standards and practical steps based on international good practice. These include legal, institutional and technical arrangements, that help countries manage seized assets in a way that preserves value, ensures accountability and supports justice.

Asset recovery is a critical tool in the fight against corruption and organised crime. But what happens after assets have been confiscated? How can they be most effectively repurposed, in order to contribute to sustainable and equitable development? 

This Quick Guide examines the various approaches that states take along these lines – how they allocate recovered funds towards general government spending, redirect assets towards public interest causes or repatriate assets to their country of origin. 

The note evaluates the current legislation on the asset recovery process both at the EU and Member States level, with a view to assessing the need and the feasibility of establishing EU regulation on the use of confiscated assets for civil society and in particular for social purposes.