*** ANDREW FARMER, MICHAEL FAURE, GRAZIA MARIA VAGLIASINDI (Eds.): Environmental crime in Europe. Hart Publishing (Kemp House, Chawley Park, Cumnor Hill, Oxford, OX2 9PH, UK. Tel: (44-1865) 517530 – Fax: 510710 – Email: mail@hartpub.co.uk – Internet: http://www.hartpub.co.uk ). Modern Studies in European Law series. 2017, 367 pp, €75. ISBN 978-1-50991-401-2.
The United States’ withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement marked their abandoning of any leadership in the world climate regime, a vacuum that it is for the European Union, as a western player, to fill. While the spotlight is now turned to the Old Continent, Europe has in fact being playing a role for decades in the growing of awareness of global warming and the need to protect the environment at global level, adding legislative gestures on its territory to its ambitious words. This book opens with a detailed analysis of the path followed by the EU in this field since the 1960s, when ‘the first actions to protect the environment, dating from the mid-‘60s were subordinated to the achievement of the goals of the internal market,’ until the adoption of the seventh action programme for the environment in the period 2013-2020, via above all Directive 2008/99/EC on protection of the environment through penal law.
Herein lies the heart of this legal study, carried out by eleventh universities and institutes from six member states between 2012 and 2016, in that in the second part of the book, it looks at the connection between this directive and penal legislation in seven member states (Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom) on the subject of crimes against the environment. As all too often occurs, the Commission’s desire to impose criminalisation of violation of environment laws was greeted by a general outcry from the EU28. In the 1970s ‘the European policy-maker realised that a lot of environmental pollution in fact has a transboundary character.’ As is perfectly illustrated by Andrew Farmer, Michael Faure and Grazia Maria Vagliasindi, the researchers who coordinated publication, it makes no sense to regulate the quality of a cross-border river in one country alone if, for example, another country upstream applies far more indulgent standards.
The European Court of Justice finally found in favour of the European executive, although it will probably still be called upon to be considerate towards ‘the often-diverging positions of EU institutions and the Member States on the subject’ of the environment, as Teresa Fajardo of Grenada University explains. Despite the difficulties, the EU can boast of ‘the remarkable results achieved by the European Community and later the EU in developing a comprehensive legal framework inspired by the objective of ensuring a high level of environmental protection.’ All the same, the EU28 is still far from being model students in terms of respect of ‘the environmental acquis.’ For example, France still needs to incorporate into its penal code the organised crime of illegal trafficking in the environmental domain, note Floriana Bianco and Annalisa Lucifora (University of Catania). Germany, which already had ‘a sophisticated set of rules regarding environmental crimes’ before the directive, displays ‘low significance of the fight against environmental crime(..), and a lack of qualified staff as well as technical and financial resources’ to pursue them, observes Stephan Sina, of the German Ecologic Institute. In Poland, the effectiveness of penal measures taken to protect the environment remains mediocre and the issue tends to leave society indifferent, argue Karolina Jackowicz, Malgosia Fitzmaurice and Valsamis Mitsilegas from Queen Mary University of London. We recall in this connection that last April, following an infringement procedure launched by the European executive, the European Court of Justice condemned Warsaw’s operational plans for Bialowieza, the last natural forest in Europe, which is classified as world heritage by Unesco and is a Natura 2000 site.
So Europe has its work cut out for it. The book’s authors thus propose starting by collecting data on application of the environment laws in the various member states, which they describe as a crucial stage ‘to avoid that harmonisation efforts remain largely symbolic’ in the fight against crimes against the environment. Crimes which, they point out, ‘can create substantial damage (…) to human and animal life.’
Maria Udrescu
*** GEORGIOS BALLIAS: L’évaluation de l'impact environnemental dans l'Union européenne. Editions Papazisi (2 rue Nikitara, GR-10678 Athens. Tel: (30-210) 3822496 – Fax: 3809020 – Email: papazisi@otenet.gr – Internet: http://www.papazisi.gr ). 2018, 240 pp, €15. ISBN 978-960-02-3383-4.
Environmental impact analysis is a particularly important element of the European Union’s political and legal environment. It arises from Directives 2001/42/EC (assessment of incidents in certain plans and programmes), 2011/92/EU (assessment of incidents in certain public and private projects on the environment) and 1992/43/EEC (conservation of natural habitats and wild fauna and flora). These three directives have in common that they are procedural mechanisms by which the impact on the environment and human health can and should be measured. Lecturer in environmental law and environment protection policies at Harokopio University in Athens, Prof. Georgios Ballas observes in the book that the impact studies in this domain are characterised by high legal and administrative complexity since as an intrinsically interdisciplinary mechanism, they are based on interconnecting scientific, social, political and legal data. Although many years have gone by since implementation of the directives, opinions have always been divided as to whether and to what extent the foreseen environmental assessments have actually contributed to environmental protection. However, the criticisms expressed by the author do not challenge the directives at all, aiming rather to lead to an improvement and/or clarification of their measures so as to make their implementation more effective. (AKa)
*** PETROS SIOUSSOURAS: Géographie de l'énergie: relations internationales, sciences juridiques, environnement. (Tel: (30-210) 3833434 –Fax: 3832294 – Email: contact@isideris.gr). 2017, 552 pp, €28. ISBN 978-960-08-0703-5.
Professor at the transport and maritime affairs department of the University of the Aegean Sea, Petros Sioussouras presents and analyses in this book the current geopolitical profile of the Eastern Mediterranean, focussing on the energy aspirations of state and international players. The analyse is combined with a succinct study of the legal status of this maritime basin in terms of the problems of maritime borders of the region in the broad sense, underlining existing problems and future prospects for the states involved. The focus is put in particular on the complexity of energy issues and international justice between Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, which can be a brake on the region’s regional security and also on Europe’s energy stability and growth. The book is enriched by a wide international bibliography.(AKa)
*** Futuribles. L’anticipation au service de l’action. Futuribles Sarl (47 rue de Babylone, F-75007 Paris. Tel: (33-1) 53633770 – Fax: 42226554 – Email: revue@futuribles.com – Internet: http://www.futuribles.com ). July-August 2018, No, 425, 144 pp, €22. Annual subscription: €115. ISBN 978-2-84387-438-0.
This French future prospects review looks in this issue at a question that never ceases to preoccupy its activists, namely the challenge of ecological transition which, as Hugues de Jouvenel explains in his editorial, is not sufficiently raised ‘in terms of the ever clearer risk of destruction of both our ecosystem and, incidentally, of humanity.’ The question is addressed in the light of two highly concrete aspects. Economist Nathalie Popiolek (Atomic and Alternative Energy Commissariat) explains how the source of renewable energy that is photovoltaic solar energy could be much better used by relying on digital technology, which would require political players and industrialists to make good choices. Geologist, volcanologist and geothermatician Jacques Varet asks why France makes far too little use of its abundant sources of geothermals when its soil and subsoil are so rich in heat. This expert presents the principles of geothermals and the benefits of using this source of energy, particularly for meeting the heating requirements of buildings (and even for air-conditioning and the production of hot water).
Among the other subjects addressed in this issue, there is the use of technosciences and artificial intelligence in the health domain (and also in service of the transhumanist dream of generating ‘supermen’), the potential consequences of ‘new silk roads’ for land and sea transport networks, and the vales to which the population of a dozen Arab countries are attached ‘between attachment to Islam and to democracy.’ The usual Tribune Européenne of Jean-François Drevet is devoted to progress in the European security and defence policy, which is described as greatly lacking in terms of the ‘geometric rise in threats’ in the vicinity of and even within the EU. (PBo)
*** GABRIELLA BERK: Free Movement of Patients in the EU: A Patient's Perspective. Editions Intersentia (Sheraton House, Castle Park, Cambridge, CB3 0AX, UK. Tel: (44-1223) 370170 – Fax: 370169 – Email: mail@intersentia.co.uk – Internet: http://www.intersentia.com ). 2018, 256 pp, €79. ISBN 978-1-78068-575-5.
While questions about patient mobility have featured high on the European Union’s political agenda for two decades, adoption of the directive on patient mobility - which was due to be implemented by the member states by 25 October 2013 – has nevertheless added to the complexity of a legislative system that was already far from simple. Two new issues have now been added to the old ones, left without satisfactory responses and all calling for answers. Thus, particularly at a time when national application of the directive is starting to have a clear impact on patients along borders, it is imperative that the entire issue of their mobility be reviewed, aware that unlike what it claimed in the existing literature, the free circulation of patients in the EU tests the current legal landscape from the viewpoint of crossing border. How, in a multi-player arena – patients, carers, healthcare systems, government national insurance, EU institutions etc – with contradictory ideologies, can the legal system be improved so as to better serve the interests of patients, while respecting the responsibilities of member states in this domain with the currently available legal tools? It is to this question that Prof. Gabriella Berki (University of Szeged in Hungary, University of the Sorbonne and University of Rijeka in Croatia) provides answers, looking in detail at the complex problems that European patients face when enjoying healthcare abroad. The author, who is also a member of two networks of European experts financed by the European Commission and working in the domains of coordination of social security and the free circulation of workers, offers clarification of the legal and non-legal obstacles to the cross-border mobility of patients, while mostly concentrating on patients’ needs and interests. A book of interest to researchers and experts in the field of patient mobility or social security, along also with stakeholders and decision-makers. (AKa)