Contents

Environmental crime

Journal:
Manual of European Environmental Policy
ISSN:
1467-0445
E-ISSN:
1740-3529
Publisher:
Routledge,
DOI:
10.3763/meep.2010.0159
Author:
Institute for European Environmental Policy
Information last updated:
April 2012
Publication date:
April 2012

The emergence of transboundary environmental crime, for example, involving illegal trade in wildlife, ozone-depleting substances or radioactive waste, has attracted increasing attention internationally and in the European Union (EU). At the same time, a consensus has gradually emerged within the EU that there is a need for some degree of harmonization of national provisions on penalties for violations of key provisions of Community environmental law, even in situations where there are no transboundary implications, in order to ensure a level playing field for regulated actors within the internal market. Accordingly, the Directive seeks to ensure that Member States treat a number of acts contravening Community environmental law as criminal offences under domestic law and provide for criminal penalties whenever these acts are committed by individuals. Non-compliance by corporations also has to be subject to penalties under the conditions laid down in the Directive, though Member States retain a choice to impose either criminal or administrative penalties on corporate offenders.

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