Environmental Crimes: EU adopts the directive

Back in November 2023 and following several months of discussion, the European Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement regarding a proposal for a new Directive on the protection of the environment through criminal law (the "ECD") and replacing Directive 2008/99/EC (see here our previous alert).

On 27 February 2024, the European Parliament adopted the ECD (499 votes in favour, 100 against and 23 abstentions), which extends the list of environmental crimes. The ECD also introduces penalties in relation to such crimes.

Key details

The newly adopted Directive seeks to improve the effective enforcement of criminal law and to fight against the most serious environmental offences which can have devastating effects on both the environment and human health.

The ECD aims to update the list of criminal offences related to the environment at the EU level. It includes, among other offences, illegal timber trade, depletion of water resources, serious breaches of EU chemicals legislation and pollution caused by ships. As a consequence of the ECD adoption, the number of offenses under EU criminal law will increase from 9 to 18.

The ECD introduces a so-called "qualified offence". Offences referred to in the ECD, and which would be committed intentionally, are considered under the text as a qualified offence. These include large-scale forest fires or widespread pollution of air, water and soil, leading to the destruction of an ecosystem and being therefore comparable to an ecocide.

Penalties

Environmental crimes committed by individuals and business representatives would be punishable with imprisonment depending on how long-lasting, severe or reversible the damage is. Qualified offences could be punished with 8 years of imprisonment, those causing the death of a person with 10 years and the other offences with up to 5 years of imprisonment.

For businesses, the fines will reach 3% or 5% of their yearly worldwide turnover or alternatively €24 or €40 million, depending on the offence.

Next steps

Once the ECD has been signed by the European Council and Parliament, it will be published in the Official Journal of the EU and will enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication. EU Member States will have two years to transpose the new rules into their national systems.