Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

AddedArticle 10 – paragraph 1 b (new): Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure the return of confiscated funds or assets of environmental crime perpetrators to the developing countries where the offence was committed, while ensuring that they are used for appropriate purposes such as restoring the environmental damages, compensating the victims and local communities, improving the living conditions of the affected population or strengthening the rule of law systems of the developing country concerned.

AddedMany environmental crimes committed in developing countries are linked to organised crime and money laundering. Target 16.4 of 2030 Agenda establishes the objective of “strengthening the recovery and return of stolen assets”. This directive represents an opportunity for the Union to contribute to achieving this goal by allowing the proceeds of environmental crimes committed in developing countries but prosecuted and judged in Member States to be returned to these countries while ensuring they are used for appropriate purposes.

AddedArticle 11 – paragraph 1: 1. Member States shall take the necessary measures to provide for a limitation period that enables the investigation, prosecution, trial and judicial adjudication of criminal offences referred to in Articles 3 and 4 for a sufficient period of time after the commission of those criminal offences or the date on which the environmental damage or human rights violation was known or revealed in order for those criminal offences to be tackled effectively, in particular, where the environmental crime has a transnational nature, has been committed in a developing country and involved organised crime. For the investigation, prosecution, trial and adjudication of criminal offences referred in Article 3a there shall not be a limitation period.

AddedArticle 11 – paragraph 1 a (new): 1a. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the limitation period for criminal offences referred to in Articles 3 and 4 does not commence until the scope of the damage to the environment has been fully established by appropriate scientific means.

AddedArticle 11 – paragraph 3: deleted

AddedArticle 12 – paragraph 1: 1. Each Member State shall take the necessary measures to establish its jurisdiction over the offences referred to in Articles 3 , 3a and 4 where: / (d) the offender is one of its nationals or habitual residents, regardless of whether the offence takes place in a Member State or a third country; / (da) the offence was committed for the benefit of a legal person established on its territory.

AddedArticle 12 – paragraph 2: 2. A Member State shall take the necessary measures to extend its jurisdiction to offences referred to in Articles 3, 3a and 4 which have been committed outside its territory, where: / (c) the offence has created a severe risk for the environment or for biodiversity on its territory.

AddedArticle 12 – paragraph 3 b (new): 3b. Member States shall introduce universal jurisdiction for their courts for the prosecution and judgement of an offence referred to in Article 3a, in order to avoid the externalisation of environmental damage, where it was not committed on its territory, was committed by a third-country national, involved a victim from a third country, and the environment of that Member State has not been affected or damaged.

AddedEnvironmental crimes are very often cross-border in nature. To avoid the externalisation of environmental damage, it should be possible to prosecute a legal or natural person for crimes committed in a third country, in particular in the case of ecocide.

AddedArticle 13 – paragraph 1: 1. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that protection granted under Article 4 of Directive (EU) 2019/1937 is applicable to natural and legal persons reporting criminal offences referred to in Articles 3 and 4 of this Directive.

AddedArticle 13 – paragraph 2: 2. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that natural and legal persons reporting offences referred to in Articles 3 and 4 of this Directive and providing evidence or otherwise cooperating with the investigation, prosecution or adjudication of such offences are provided the necessary support and assistance in the context of criminal proceedings.

AddedBoth natural and legal persons should be protected when they report environmental offences or assist the investigation. Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), which are often at the forefront of detecting environmental crime need to be protected as well.

AddedArticle 14 – paragraph 1: Member States shall ensure that, in accordance with their national legal system, members of the public concerned have appropriate rights to participate in proceedings concerning offences referred to in Articles 3 and 4, for instance as a civil party or as a private prosecutor.

AddedArticle 14 – paragraph 1 a (new): Member States shall ensure that, the following information is considered to be in the public interest and made available to the public concerned: / (a) any final judgement in a trial; / (b) information enabling the members of the public concerned to know about the state of the proceedings, unless in exceptional cases the proper handling of the case might be adversely affected by such disclosure of information.

AddedA minimum level of rights should be awarded to the general public in its capacity of exercising representation of nature as a victim of an environmental crime.

AddedArticle 15 – paragraph 1: Member States shall take appropriate action, such as the improvement of the preventive law enforcement tools, information and awareness-raising campaigns and research and education programmes, to reduce overall environmental criminal offences, raise public awareness and reduce the risk of population of becoming a victim of an environmental criminal offence. Where appropriate, Member States shall act in cooperation with the relevant stakeholders.

AddedArticle 15 – paragraph 1 a (new): Member States shall also ensure an effective implementation and enforcement of national and Union environmental due diligence obligations in the supply chains of their natural and legal persons operating in developing countries as set out in Directive (EU) xxx/xxx [Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive].

AddedArticle 15 a (new): Article 15a / The reinforcement of the administrative inspections systems and the use of new technologies, such as the use of Earth observation, shall be enhanced to prevent and detect environmental crimes, in particular those committed in developing countries.

AddedArticle 16 – paragraph 1: Member States shall ensure that national authorities which prevent, detect, investigate, prosecute or adjudicate environmental offences have a sufficient number of qualified staff and sufficient financial, technical and technological resources necessary for the effective performance of their functions related to the implementation of this Directive.

AddedArticle 17 – paragraph 1: Without prejudice to judicial independence and differences in the organisation of the judiciary across the Union, Member States shall request those responsible for the training of judges, prosecutors, police, judicial staff and competent authorities’ staff involved in criminal proceedings and investigations, including environmental experts, to provide at regular intervals specialised training, especially in the case of environmental crime committed within the framework of criminal organisations with respect to the objectives of this Directive and appropriate to the functions of the involved staff and authorities. Specialised training courses on the investigation and prosecution of transnational environmental crimes shall be given particular attention.

AddedArticle 18 – paragraph 1: Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that effective investigative tools, such as those which are used in organised crime, cybercrime, financial crime or other serious crime cases, are also available for investigating or prosecuting offences referred to in Articles 3 and 4.

AddedArticle 19 a (new): Article 19a / Cooperation among Member States, with the Union bodies, offices and agencies and with developing countries / 1. Member States shall ensure effective coordination and cross-border cooperation with other Member States and with the Union, including its specialized bodies, offices and agencies, such as the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust), the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. / 2. Member States shall intensify international judicial cooperation and, in particular, cooperation with developing countries in order to strengthen their rule of law and governance systems with a view to implementing effective mechanisms to prevent and combat environmental crime. / 3. The Commission shall make more efforts to improve international and development cooperation and supporting developing countries, by taking effective measures to improve capacity building, in particular the establishment of technical assistance programmes, to enable them to improve their administrative, judicial and legal systems, with the aim of preventing and combating environmental crime more effectively.

AddedArticle 20 – paragraph 1 – point a: (a) the objectives and priorities of national policy in this area of offence including the prevention and combatting of transnational environmental organised crime, as well as corruption and money-laundering linked to such crimes when affecting developing countries;

AddedArticle 20 – paragraph 1 – point b: (b) the roles and responsibilities of all the competent authorities involved in countering this type of offence, as well as other actors, such as civil society and the private sector;

AddedArticle 20 – paragraph 1 – point c: (c) the modes of coordination and cooperation between the competent authorities and with other actors such as civil society;

AddedArticle 20 – paragraph 1 – point e: (e) the resources needed and allocated and how specialisation of enforcement professionals will be supported, and how multidisciplinary approaches will be included in training programmes;

AddedArticle 20 – paragraph 1 – point f: (f) the procedures and mechanisms for regular monitoring and evaluation of the results achieved including the baseline and the indicators used;

AddedArticle 20 – paragraph 1 – point g a (new): (ga) assistance to, and protection of, victims in developing countries, in particular those in vulnerable situations, including environmental defenders;

AddedArticle 21 – paragraph 2: (c) the average length of court proceedings from the beginning of the criminal investigations of environmental crimes to the issuance of the judicial sentence and its execution; / (f) the number of legal persons sanctioned for environmental crime or equivalent offences and whether the perpetrator was an organised crime group or acted within such a group; / (h) the types and levels of sanctions imposed for environmental crime, including per categories of environmental offences according to Article 3; / (ha) the number of transnational environmental crime cases disaggregated by countries where the environmental offence was committed; / (hb) figures on proceeds from environmental crimes that were provisionally seized or frozen and finally confiscated; / (hc) information on whether the environmental crime constitutes a predicate offence for money laundering; / (hd) the number of victims, including groups of victims or local communities, disaggregated, inter alia, by sex, age, ethnicity, country of origin; / (he) type of impact on the environment and on people and local communities.