Punishing Polluters
February 8, 2007
The European Commission said in a draft paper that it wants to punish the most serious "green crimes" against the environment with 5-10 year minimum jail terms and fines of up to 1.5 million euros ($1.9 million), the EUobserver internet news service reported.
The draft paper called for "more dissuasive sanctions for environmentally harmful activities, which typically cause or are likely to cause substantial damage to the air, soil, water, animals or plants."
Overall, the EU Commission is seeking minimum sentences for nine offenses. These range from dumping toxic waste to unsafe transport of hazardous materials, harming protected plants or species, and unlawful trade in ozone-depleting substances.
Intentional crimes punished heavily
The heaviest sentence -- at least five to 10 years of jail -- would apply to crimes committed intentionally that killed or seriously injured people. Other offenses would be punished by at least one to three years in prison.
The proposal marks the second time in EU legal history that Brussels proposes national governments will no longer have the full sovereign right to decide what constitutes a crime and what the punishment should be.
The first precedent dates back to May, 2006, when common rules on counterfeiting were put on the table by the Brussels executive body.
'Green crime' on the rise
The Commission, which is due to adopt the proposal on Friday, says "green crimes" are on the rise, increasingly causing cross-border damage, and that EU states' measures are insufficient to stop them.
Member states and the European Parliament must approve the draft directive for it to take effect, overriding national laws. It touches on the sensitive issue of the division of powers between national and EU law over criminal penalties.
"In order to achieve effective protection of the environment, there is a particular need for more dissuasive sanctions for environmentally harmful activities," the draft proposal said.
It said measures taken by the bloc's 27 states individually are insufficient and vary too much, allowing companies to shop around for the most lenient legislation in the borderless bloc.
But its proposal prompted some angry reactions.
Greenpeace in favor
"The European Commission is using the environmental agenda as an excuse to massively increase its powers at the expense of national parliaments. This is a very slippery slope," British Conservative EU lawmaker Syed Kamall told Reuters news service.
But Environmental group Greenpeace welcomed the move. "It's certainly an improvement on the current situation, some member states only have administrative fines," spokeswoman Katharine Mill said.
She urged the bloc to go further, however, saying the proposed fines were too low and the scope of the proposal should be wider, to include for instance import of illegal timber.