The European Commission is proposing that environmental crimes committed in the EU to the detriment of human health and the environment should be adequately punished under criminal law, as too many of these highly lucrative crimes currently fall under the radar of the justice system.
The proposal for a directive that it adopted on Wednesday 15 December aims to strengthen the 2008 directive on the protection of the environment through criminal law (2008/99/EC), the limited effectiveness of which the Commission had recognised in 2020 due to poor implementation and, above all, insufficiently dissuasive penalties (see EUROPE 12853/8, 12852/15).
To tackle more effectively what is the fourth largest criminal sector in the world, the proposal will oblige Member States to take criminal law measures. It defines new environmental offences, sets a minimum level of sanctions and enhances the effectiveness of law enforcement cooperation.
The proposal is accompanied by a Communication from the Commission on future legal action.
“Environmental crimes cause irreversible and long-term damage to people’s health and the environment. Yet, they are hard to investigate and bring before the Court, while sanctions tend to be weak. We are adding precision and a level of sanctions that will correspond to the seriousness of the acts, sometimes with prison sentences”, said the Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius, in presenting the proposal to the press.
In a statement, the Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, who is primarily responsible for this dossier, stresses that the proposal “will directly address root-causes that have prevented the protection of the environment from being as effective as it should be”.
Scope. The future directive will apply throughout the EU, with the exception of Denmark, in accordance with the EU Treaty. The proposal establishes new environmental criminal offences, including illegal timber trade, illegal ship recycling or illegal abstraction of water. “The list of environmental crimes is twice as long as it is now”, commented Mr Sinkevičius.
The text mentions ecocide, which is currently under discussion at international level, but does not provide a definition.
“The campaign for recognition of this crime is based on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, but the Commission is not a party to the Rome Statute. However, we are using part of the concept of ecocide”, explained the Commissioner. He added that “in the future, the Commission’s proposals could cover most illegal behaviour, in line with ecocide”.
Sanctions. The Commission proposes to set a common minimum denominator for penalties for environmental offences, taking into account their seriousness. For less serious infringements, fines of up to 5% of global turnover should be applied. Other sanctions are also possible, says the Commission, such as the withdrawal of licences or the exclusion of public aid possibilities, “which is more effective than financial sanctions, especially for moral authorities”, the Commissioner stressed.
Where the offence causes or is likely to cause death or serious injury to a person, Member States will have to provide at least for imprisonment of up to ten years.
Asked about France’s concerns that the new directive would complicate administrative procedures, the Commissioner replied: “When it comes to law enforcement, the administrative burden cannot be invoked. We need good implementation and offenders to be sanctioned”.
Cooperation. The proposal foresees support for inspectors, police, prosecutors and judges through training, investigative tools, coordination and cooperation as well as better data collection and statistics.
In response to a question on the role that Europol and the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) could play in the future to remedy the poor implementation and lack of cooperation of law enforcement authorities in cases of cross-border crime, the Commissioner indicated that “the Commission will review the mandate of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office with a view to increasing its competences. This is foreseen in the mid-term review in 2023”.
As for the possibility of increased financial or human resources, he said that the Commission had not yet considered this, but that “this will be provided for in the context of training and other initiatives”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)