A bill on managing assets confiscated from criminal activities submitted to the Parliament by the Finance Ministry was voted on Thursday.
In comments before the vote, Deputy Finance Minister Apostolos Vesyropoulos said the new law meant Greece follows the practices of other EU countries such as Belgium, France, and Spain. The law also requires setting up a central online registry of all types of confiscated assets, whether material or not.
The bill was approved in principle by ruling New Democracy votes alone. Main opposition SYRIZA-Progressive Alliance has been abstaining from votes as stated at the start of this year, PASOK-Movement for Change (KINAL) voted ‘present’, and the Communist Party, the Greek Solution and MeRA25 voted against it.
The bill included also a provision to set up what he described as “a new private pension and investment program that could be provided by a wide spectrum of financial institutions throughout the EU, such as credit institutions, insurance businesses, investment businesses.”
The new program will be called “Pan-European Individual Pension Product” and will be available in tandem with the existing national private pension programs, and it will also serve to supplement public and professional pension systems.
