On April 24, 2024, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Directive (EU) 2024/1260 on asset recovery and confiscation. This directive was published on May 2, 2024, and officially came into effect on May 22, 2024. Member States of the European Union have until November 23, 2026, to implement the directive into their national laws. The directive mandates that each Member State establish at least one Asset Recovery Office, which must have direct access to centralized information systems. These include land and cadastral registers, company registers, records of beneficial owners, and registers of vehicles, aircraft, and ships, as well as centralized bank account information. The directive also sets strict time limits for cooperation between these offices, with seven days for standard requests, eight hours for urgent ones, and three days for other urgent matters. These time limits apply to cooperation within the EU but not automatically to requests from non-EU countries like Ukraine. The directive also enhances the ability to confiscate assets transferred to third parties, extends the scope of confiscation without prior conviction, and allows for the confiscation of unexplained assets linked to criminal activities under certain conditions. Article 31 of the directive encourages Member States to cooperate with third countries, such as Ukraine, within the framework of international law. Article 25 requires each Member State to create a national asset recovery strategy by May 24, 2027, outlining coordination mechanisms and cooperation with third countries. For Ukraine, this directive represents an opportunity to better prepare cases for European authorities, allowing them to use the new mechanisms more effectively. A proposed project, the French Asset Recovery Desk - France/Ukraine, aims to create a specialized Ukrainian presence in France. This would enable the connection of Ukrainian investigations with assets located in France. The project is designed to be limited in scope, with a coordinator, the Local Asset Recovery Coordinator - France, who would handle a limited number of priority cases referred by Ukrainian authorities. A pilot program might involve ten cases over ninety days. The starting point would be an investigation in Ukraine indicating that a suspect may have acquired assets in France. Local work would then involve researching and documenting French companies linked to the individual, their management, associates, structural changes, real estate, and other relevant information, resulting in a structured patrimonial file for European authorities. Ukrainian law already includes provisions that could support this project. Order No. 39 of January 22, 2020, issued by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, establishes the role of volunteer counselors to the Prosecutor General. These counselors can perform analytical and informational tasks and could be adapted to serve as the Local Asset Recovery Coordinator with a specific mandate for France and defined confidentiality rules. The project would remain analytical and preparatory, leaving coercive actions to legally competent authorities. The French Asset Recovery Desk would not have access to bank accounts, confidential tax information, or police and justice databases, but would use public sources and legal professionals as needed.