Ahead of the European Commission’s proposal to revise the EU directive on the protection of the environment through criminal law (2008/99/EC), MEPs and civil society organisations on Monday 13 December called for the fight against environmental crime to be made an EU priority.
This is the subject of a letter addressed to European Commissioners Didier Reynders (Justice) and Virginijus Sinkevičius (Environment), supported by 54 environmental organisations, trade unions, and human rights associations as well as 32 parliamentarians from five political groups (see EUROPE 12852/15).
The proposal, adopted on 14 December by the College of Commissioners, will be presented on Wednesday by the Commissioner for Environment.
The signatories point out that environmental crime has increased in the Member States and that in a few decades environmental crime has become the fourth largest criminal sector in the world, as lucrative as drug trafficking.
“While combating environmental crime in all its forms should be afforded priority at the EU level, only 1% of the cases handled by Eurojust concern environmental offences”, according to a January 2021 report.
Welcoming the European Commission’s 10 recommendations in its assessment of the directive’s limited effectiveness, they call on the institution first and foremost to “address the current mismatch between this legislation, the EU’s environmental and climate objectives, and the overriding need to bring nature back into our lives”.
Summing up the issue, MEP and lawyer Marie Toussaint (Greens/EFA, France) said: “Today, environmental crimes are not recognised in Europe or in its Member States. While involved in the Green Deal, the European Union must not miss this crucial opportunity to strengthen its environmental criminal law and to enshrine the recognition of environmental crimes independently of administrative regulations, including the crime of ecocide”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)