Environmental Crime Directive

The new Environmental Crime Directive was adopted on 11 April 2024 and entered into force on 20 May 2024, supporting the protection of the environment through criminal law and replacing the 2008 Environmental Crime Directive.

To address the shortcomings regarding the effectiveness of environmental criminal law, the new Directive establishes minimum rules with regards to the definition of criminal offences and penalties in order to protect the environment more effectively, as well as measures to prevent and combat environmental crime.

Novel key elements of the new Directive include:

• Offences: The Directive includes a comprehensive up-to-date list of conducts to be established as criminal offences in the national legal order of Member States. Compared to the 2008 Directive, several new offence categories have been introduced, such as:
  • unlawful ship recycling and water extraction
  • serious breaches of EU chemicals and mercury legislation
  • placing on the market and export of relevant commodities and products in breach of the Union Anti-Deforestation Regulation.
• Qualified offences: In addition, Member States are obliged to establish as qualified offences cases where particularly serious damage to and destruction of the environment is caused by committing one of the offences listed in the Directive. These qualified offences shall be subject to more severe penalties for natural and legal persons than the ones for the other offences.
• Penalties: The Directive establishes a graduated system of minimum-maximum imprisonment penalties and, for legal persons, introduces two alternative fining methods based on fixed amounts between €24 and €40 million and the total annual worldwide turnover of the legal person concerned.
• Enforcement: The Directive includes a set of provisions which will help improve the effectiveness of all actors, such as investigators and police officers, along the enforcement chain to combat environmental crime, for example through sufficient resources, specialised training, cooperation mechanisms within and between Member States, as well as national strategies.
• Environmental defenders and more: The Directive includes also provisions on supporting environmental defenders, participation in criminal proceedings, attempt, inciting, aiding and abetting, aggravating and mitigating circumstances, prevention, freezing and confiscation, limitation periods and jurisdiction. 

The new Environmental Crime Directive replaces the Directive 2008/99/EC on the protection of the environment through criminal law. Following evaluations in 2019 and 2020, the Commission found that the Directive did not have sufficient effect. The number of environmental crime cases successfully investigated and sentenced remained very low, sanctions were too low to be dissuasive and cross-border cooperation was insufficient. There were enforcement gaps in all Member States and at all levels of the enforcement chain (police, prosecution and criminal courts). The lack of reliable data also hampered the monitoring of the effectiveness of environmental crime proceedings.

In 2021 the Commission proposed a new Directive, which included these six objectives: 

1. Clarify terms used in the definitions of environmental crime that leave too much room for interpretation (e.g. ‘substantial damage’).
2. Update the Directive by bringing new environmental crime sectors under its scope.
3. Define the types and levels of penalties for environmental crime.
4. Foster cross-border investigation and prosecution.
5. Improve informed decision-making on environmental crime through improved collection and dissemination of statistical data according to common standards in all Member States.
6. Improve the effectiveness of national enforcement chains. 

Environmental Compliance and Governance Forum

The high-level Commission Expert Group on Environmental Compliance and Governance Forum works to support the effective combatting of environmental crime. In 2021, a Forum sub-group on sanctioning of environmental offences was established. Its work focuses on developing common views and collecting good practices on environmental enforcement and sanctioning.

EMPACT

EMPACT (European Multidisciplinary Platform against Criminal Threats) was established in 2017. It is the EU's flagship initiative in its fight against organised and serious international crime.

This cooperation platform is driven by EU Member States and is supported by all EU institutions, bodies and agencies. Third countries and international organisations are also associated.

The EMPACT cycle 2018-2021 already led to some positive results. These should be consolidated and further enhanced during the 2022-2025 cycle.

European level networks of environmental practitioners play a crucial role in sharing good practices, developing practical tools for inspections, detection and investigation of environmental crime, and training.

You can find more information here.

View the Guidance on combatting environmental crime and related infringements, developed under the Action Plan on Environmental Compliance and Governance, in all EU languages. A Summary Guide is also available.

For questions about EU environmental policy, please contact Europe Direct.