The EU Has Discovered That Smugglers Like Money

On 9 July, the European Commission proposed a new sanctions system against migrant smugglers, traffickers and other organised crime networks.

Asset freezes. Travel bans. Blocking access to money.

In other words, instead of only catching exhausted drivers, small-time facilitators and people at the very end of the chain, the EU may finally try to hurt the people running the business.

Not a revolutionary discovery, perhaps. Criminal organisations are businesses. They need money, transport, companies, bank accounts, phones, middlemen and corrupt contacts.

Still, better late than never.

The proposal comes from Ursula von der Leyen’s 2025 State of the Union speech and, in principle, it makes sense. Smuggling networks do not care very much about our institutional charts. The same routes can be used for people, drugs, weapons and money laundering.

The problem, as always, will be implementation.

Freezing assets works only if you can find the assets. Travel bans work only if the person wants to travel. Sanctioning one company works only until another company appears with a different name, a different director and probably the same office chair.

The EU says the measures should be swift.

They also need unanimous approval from 27 Member States.

So yes, swift. In the European sense.

Still, the idea is good. Follow the money, identify the real organisers and make the business harder and more expensive.

Just please do not stop after producing a very impressive list in Brussels while the criminals move everything to a new WhatsApp group.

Personal view.