Brussels, 14/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - By finding in favour of the European Commission and the European Parliament in their court case against the Council on the power to impose criminal sanctions under EU environment legislation, the European Court of Justice reinforced European democracy and made EU policies more effective, said the President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, in a statement issued on Tuesday night (see EUROPE 9026). Borrell said the European Parliament had always defended the idea of polluters paying, but the idea is only of value if supported by sanctions. Member States decided that serious breaches of EU environmental law should come under national legal powers only, which the European Parliament and European Commission challenged. The Court of Justice has acknowledged that while criminal law does not usually come under EU power, this does not apply when the environment is seriously damaged. The environment is an EU policy and the Court ruled that criminal sanctions can be defined in the framework of a Directive (in other words at EU level) passed in codecision by the Council and Parliament.
'The Court of Justice ruling was an absolute breakthrough in EU law,' said Riia Oomen-Ruijten, Dutch Christian Democrat MEP (and European Parliament rapporteur on the issue) in a press release. 'More important: the European citizen and democracy have won this battle… British tabloids were accusing me of 'unlawful legislation' and made life rather difficult for me. Now we can stop the bizarre practice by which Member States refuse to enforce EU laws,' she added.