Le crime environnemental

Résumé

According to a US government report "

In 1998, the Council of Europe opened a Convention on the protection of the environment through criminal law for signature. This was significant because it represented the 1st international convention to criminalise acts causing or likely to cause environment damage. However, Germany followed by France and the UK expressed its reluctance to ratify the Convention.

As a result, Danemark and the Commission both presented initiatives aiming to protect the environment under criminal law. The existence of two proposals has created conflict between the Council on the one hand and the European Parliament and the Commission on the other.

Enjeux

The Commission adopted a directive establishing a Community minimum standard to combat environmental crime in March 2001. According to the Commission's proposal, more stringent than the Danish one, the Member States will have to ensure that any act committed intentionally or out of serious negligence, which breaches the Community rules protecting the environment, is treated as a criminal offence.

The offences that are to be classified as crimes are the unlawful discharge of substances into air, soil or water and the handling of waste or radioactive materials such as to cause "substantial damage" to the environment or "death or serious injury" to people. Unlawful handling of protected wildlife and trading in ozone-depleting substances will also be crimes.

The Parliament has given its support to the Commission’s proposal during first reading.

In January 2003, the Council adopted a Framework Decision on the protection of the environment through criminal law based on the proposal tabled by the Denmark. This proposal (11 February 2000) seeks to establish police, criminal, justice and administrative cooperation between Member States to combat serious environmental offences on an intergovernmental basis ("third pillar" of the EU Treaty). Third pillar legislation makes the Member States, and not the EU, responsible for the application of the agreed measures.

The Commission contests the legal basis on which the Council took its decision. On 24 March 2003, it launched a legal action before the European Court of Justice to annul the Framework Decision adopted by the Council. The Commission considers article 175 (the main environmental article) as the correct legal basis, instead of basing the legislation on the "third pillar" and therefore excluding the Commission and the Parliament. Another point of criticism is that the Council's Framework Decision could produce distortions in the way environmental laws are implemented in the Member States.

Réactions

In the Council, the majority of delegations considered that the Commission's proposal went beyond the powers attributed to it by the Treaty establishing the European Community and that the objectives could be reached by adopting a Framework Decision on the basis of Title VI of the Treaty on the European Union.

Mrs Oomen-Ruijten (EPP-ED, NL), Parliament's rapporteur, strongly favoured the Commission's proposal over the Danish one. Her report, adopted on 9 April 2002 by the European Parliament, stated that criminal law is not solely a "third pillar" issue and that the EU shoul d act on environmental crime in a harmonised way. She considers that the Council's approach involved a lack of enforceability.

Dates clés

• The European Court of Justice will decide whether the Council's Framework Decision should be annulled.
• The Framework Decision is due to enter into force in January 2005.

Liens externes

Non-assigned links

• DG Environment:Environmental Crime(26 August 2003)
• EurLex:Council framework decision on the protection of the environment through criminal law[ FR FR DE
• EurLex:Directive on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law (COM(2001)139)[ FR FR DE
• European Parliament:Debates: Combating serious environmental crime[ FR FR DE
• DG Environment:Criminal Penalties in EU Member States' Environmental Law, study by the Maastricht European Institute for Transnational Legal Research (Metro)(26 August 2003)
• Council:Organised environmental crime in European countries(March 2001)
• Scad plus:Serious environmental crime[ FR FR DE
• UNEP:New initiative to combat growing global menace of environmental crime[ FR
• Council of Europe:Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law, 4 November 1998[ FR
• Council of Europe:Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law, Explanatory Report[ FR
• Council of Europe:Lutte de l"Europe contre la criminalité économique et le crime organisé transnational: progrès ou recul?
• US White House:International Crime Threat Assessment
• UK Environment Agency:Environmental crime - an overview
• UK Customs and Excise:Our fight against environmental crime
• Intertanko:Environmental crime - post Prestige
• UK Royal Institute of International Affairs:International environmental crime the nature and control of environmental black markets
• Journal des Accidents et des Catastrophes:La règlementation du commerce maritime: entre crime écologique et voyous des mers ntha> (Mars 2003)
• Fraudwatchernetwork:Environmental Crime - overview