The Czech Presidency of the EU Council submitted a new text to Member States on 13 October on the Directive on the protection of the environment through criminal law (see EUROPE 13042/6, 13030/3). It introduces new information on the most discussed articles over several months, namely the level of sanctions for natural and legal persons who commit environmental offences.
On Article 5 of the proposed directive, which sets a maximum prison sentence for natural persons, there are still divisions. The Czech Presidency wants to consult Member States bilaterally in order to move forward. It notes that several delegations have recently expressed their willingness to be flexible over this issue.
Regarding Article 7, which details levels of fines for legal persons, there is hope that a compromise can be reached. At the Justice Council on 13 October, Member States again demonstrated that they were divided over the idea of linking the level of fines to the global turnover of the company in question (see EUROPE 13042/6).
However, those countries in favour of this principle (which follow the European Commission’s recommendation) seem to understand the concerns of their opponents. According to the document by the Czech Presidency, they are not opposed to an alternative system that includes fixed fines rather than fines linked to turnover. The Czech Presidency has therefore invited Member States to continue to discuss this option and to indicate what level they could support in respect of both serious and less serious infringements.
The Presidency has already drawn up two bands regarding the amounts: between 20 and 100 million euros for serious offences and between 10 and 50 million for others.
View the text by the Czech Presidency: https://aeur.eu/f/3p8 (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)