Environment law - Liability

European Union

Criminal penalties

A study published by the European Commission entitled 'Criminal Penalties in EU Member States Environmental Law' has reported that criminal sanctions for crimes committed in relation to EU Directives and Regulations exist in almost all Member States. However, Spain was an exception as it only has in place administrative sanctions for specific crimes, although criminal sanctions not aimed at specific crimes committed in relation to these Directives and Regulations do exist. Germany, Denmark and Austria were also found to have large bodies of legislation for administrative sanctions for environment offences although they also have significant criminal sanctions available. Although theoretically all environment crimes in Member States are sanctioned with similar penalties to traditional crimes, including custodial sentences, the study found that fines were by far the most commonly used sanctions for environment offences with imprisonment extremely rare. It was also found that there is a general trend towards more severe sentencing for environment crimes in all Member States, with increases both in the number of prosecutions and in the levels of fine.

(European Commission, September 2003)

Candidate countries

A study of the national environmental legislation in several candidate countries has concluded that all the countries covered have progressively moved towards stricter systems for protecting the environment. The criminal codes in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia contain provisions for committing criminal acts which pose a threat to the environment. In addition, the Czech Republic and Hungary also have in place legislation enabling criminal sanctions for nature and waste related offences. It was also found that Slovakia and Poland go further than other countries in providing more detailed provisions on a variety of environment offences, with Poland having a system of criminal environment law far more developed than any of the other countries studied.

(European Commission, 6 October 2003)

For further information please contact Paul Sheridan on + 44 (0)20 7367 2186 or [email protected]