Council and European Parliament reach provisional agreement on new EU law
The Council presidency and European Parliament negotiators reached a provisional agreement on a proposed EU law that would improve the investigation and prosecution of environmental crime offences.
The new directive aims at establishing minimum rules on the definition of criminal offences and sanctions in order to better protect the environment, replacing the previous 2008 directive, which has become obsolete in the face of developments in EU environmental law.
The directive defines environmental crime more precisely and adds new types of environmental criminal offences. It also harmonises the level of penalties for natural persons and, for the first time, for legal persons across all EU member states.
More offences…
The Council and European Parliament agreed to increase the number of offences that currently exist under EU criminal law from nine to 18. This broadens and clarifies the type of conduct that is prohibited because it harms the environment. The new offences include timber trafficking, which is a major cause of deforestation in some parts of the world, the illegal recycling of polluting components of ships and serious breaches of legislation on chemicals.
The Council and European Parliament also agreed on a ‘qualified offence’ clause. Offences referred to in the directive, and which are committed intentionally, are considered a qualified offence if they cause destruction; irreversible, widespread and substantial damage; or long-lasting, widespread and substantial damage to an ecosystem of considerable size or environmental value, or to a natural habitat within a protected site, or to the quality of air, soil or water.
… and tougher penalties
In the case of natural persons who commit one of the offences covered by the directive, the text sets out the following penalties:
- for intentional offences causing death to any person, a maximum prison term of at least ten years
- for the qualified offence causing catastrophic results, a maximum prison term of at least eight years
- for offences committed with at least serious negligence causing death to any person, a maximum prison term of at least five years
- for other intentional offences included in the legislation, a maximum prison term of either at least five years or at least three years
In the case of legal persons, the law sets out the following penalties:
- for the most serious offences, a maximum fine of at least 5% of the legal person’s total worldwide turnover, or alternatively €40 million
- for all other offences, a maximum fine of at least 3% of the legal person’s total worldwide turnover, or alternatively €24 million
Additional measures may also be taken, including obliging the offender to reinstate the environment or compensate for the damage, excluding them from access to public funding or withdrawing their permits or authorisations.
Training and resources
In addition, member states will have to ensure that training is provided for those working to detect, investigate and prosecute environmental crime, such as judges, prosecutors and police authorities. EU countries will also need to make sure that these authorities have adequate resources – for instance in terms of the number of qualified staff and the financial resources to carry out their functions under the directive. The directive also contains provisions on support and assistance to persons reporting environmental crime, environmental defenders and persons affected by these crimes.
Background and next steps
Environmental crime is one of the world’s most profitable organised criminal activities and has a major impact not only on the environment but also on human health. It is highly lucrative, but it is hard to detect, prosecute and punish.
A first EU directive on the protection of the environment through criminal law was adopted in 2008. Following an evaluation in 2019-2020, the European Commission concluded that the effect of the directive had been limited as the number of cases successfully investigated and resulting in a sentence remained low. Moreover, the sanction levels imposed were too low to be dissuasive and cross-border cooperation was not taking place systematically. On 15 December 2021, the Commission presented a proposal to improve the effectiveness of the directive.
The agreement still needs to be confirmed by both institutions before going through the formal adoption procedure.