EU Environmental Crime and Punishment

Abstract

Environmental crimes often have a transnational aspect and constitute a serious and growing problem that needs to be tackled at European level. Recent developments under the Lisbon Treaty can be regarded as an unambiguous authorisation for the reconsideration of all criminal law related regulation, including the current Directive 2008/99/EC of the European Parliament, and of the Council on the protection of the environment through criminal law in light of the new legal environment. The reconsideration is particularly relevant in so far as the 2008 directive does not lay down measures concerning the procedural part of criminal law, nor does it touch upon the powers of police, prosecutors or judges. Moreover, it does not contain provisions on the role of Europol/Eurojust in the fight against environmental crime. However, in accordance with Europol’s envisaged role by the Stockholm Programme, a former proposal made by the Danish government back in 2000 intended to include Europol in this work. It should also be emphasised that the investigation of environmental crime has its own difficulties. These difficulties multiply when the offence has a cross-border aspect and the cooperation of more than one member state’s law enforcement authority is required. The available legal tools in this regard are also emerging within the EU, and t need to be analysed. The creation of the so-called “EnviCrimeNet” 2011 is promising, however it a purely informal cooperation of national law enforcement experts, sharing non-operational information.In light of the post Lisbon EU legal framework, the current directive for environmental crime needs to be reassessed. The problem was also recognised by the Action Plan Implementing the Stockholm Programme, when it called for legislative proposals that would supplement Directive 2008/99/EC by protecting the environment through criminal law and Directive 2009/123/EC on ship-source pollution. This dissertation will focus on the potential for further development in the context of territorially based environmental crime.