Seriously damaging the environment should be made a criminal offence in all EU Member States, so as to ensure that EU legislation is properly enforced, says the Legal Affairs Committee in a co-decision report, approved on Tuesday, April 8, on a proposed EU directive on the protection of the environment through criminal law. The report by Hartmut Nassauer (EPP-ED, DE) was approved by a small majority, with 15 votes in favour, 11 against and 2 abstentions. According to the rapporteur, Parliament is on the way to a first reading agreement with the Council. The report will be voted in the plenary in May.

The report's overall aim is to ensure that all Member States treat as criminal offences a series of acts that cause damage to the environment. In other words, if in an EU Member State one of the acts listed in the report is currently subject only to civil sanctions (e.g. a fine), then  after the entry into force of this legislation  national government would have to apply "effective, proportionate and dissuasive" criminal penalties to that specific case.
 
MEPs in committee agreed that in principle governments should apply criminal measures to punish any illegal behaviour likely to seriously injure people or damage air, soil, waters, plants and animals, when committed intentionally or with serious negligence. The committee also agreed that the directive would only apply to breaches of EU environment protection legislation, as set out in the annex to the report. Among the offences that would be deemed crimes, when already illegal under EU law, the approved text lists environmental damage caused by the emission of radiation into air, soil or water, the disposal of waste, and the manufacture and storage of nuclear materials. MEPs also backed the inclusion within the directive's scope of the possession, killing or trading of protected fauna and flora species, the deterioration of a habitat of a protected site, and the manufacture and distribution of ozone-depleting substances. More information can be found here.