The New Directive On The Protection Of The Environment Through The Criminal Law

摘要

Directive 2008/99 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Protection of the Environment through criminal law came into force on December 26, 2008, but Member States have until December 26, 2010 for compliance. This new Directive, as was previously explained in a current topic for 2007 (see [2007] J.P.L. 1644), has its origins in the European Court of Justice decision in 2005, Commission v Council (Case C-176/03) [2005] E.C.R. 1-7879, that a framework decision of the council imposing similar duties was invalid.rnThe rationale for the Directive is that while EC environmental law has existed for 30 years, there are still many states where there is non-observance of the laws. There are also large differences between the criminal sanctions provided for environmental offences in the Member States and in many cases the criminal sanctions are not sufficiently stringent to ensure a high level of environmental protection throughout the Community.