EU seeks to give laws to protect the environment new teeth

BRUSSELS

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed giving new teeth to laws against environmental crimes.

The bill would oblige EU member states to take criminal law measures against environmental crimes by clarifying definitions and demanding minimum penalties, the EU executive body said in a statement.

The new legislation would include criminal offenses in such areas as the illegal timber trade, illegal ship recycling, discharge of polluting materials from ships, breaking the law on invasive alien species, and bypassing environmental requirements to get business licenses.

The legislation would require EU countries to implement these new definitions in national criminal law and set up minimum sanctions of jail sentences and financial penalties.

“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,” Virginijus Sinkevicius, the EU commissioner for the environment, said on the proposal.

The proposal is part of the European Commission’s European Green Deal initiative aiming to fight climate change and environmental degradation.

The bill has yet to be adopted by the European Parliament or EU member states.

Environmental crime is the fourth most important criminal activity in the world after drug trafficking, human trafficking, and counterfeiting, expanding 5-7% every year, according to Interpol and the UN Environment Program.