Commission gets tough on environmental crime
Breaches of EU environmental law could be punishable by legal sanctions if a new Commission proposal is accepted by the Member States. The proposal responds to a request from the Member States for the adoption of criminal sanctions for breaches of environmental law on a Community level, following the Tampere summit in October 1999. The proposal addresses the most serious breaches of Community environmental law and covers three aspects intended to ensure effective legal sanctions: - Member States themselves will decide the criminal penalties for breaches of environmental rules under their own system of criminal law - the Commission's proposal only concerns international damage to the environment or damage caused by serious negligence (which means not all pollution would be considered a criminal offence); - the Directive would cover offences which are already expressly prohibited by existing EU environmental law. 'It is clear that the question of effective sanctions needs to be narrowly linked to the environmental provision which shall have to be respected by citizens, economic operators and all actual or potential polluters,' commented environment Commissioner Margot Wallström. 'For this reason the proposal aims at setting a minimum EU standard which all Member States shall have to respect. I welcome this approach. It makes it clear that environmental pollution is an act which society greatly disapproves.'