Revised EU criminal law: a new opportunity to effectively tackle environmental crimes

The European Commission has adopted this week a proposal for a new EU Directive to crack down on environmental crime. The SWiPE project has engaged in the consultation process and considers the revision an important step, given that the evaluation published in October 2020 found that the Directive has not fully met its objectives and that there was room for improvement. 

The SWiPE project, along with WWF, advocated for the revision to include:

  • expanded scope
  • specific provisions for types and levels of criminal sanctions
  • a harmonised list of cross-border investigative tools that should be available in Member States for tackling environmental crime.


In addition, we underlined the importance for EU Member States to treat wildlife and forest crimes as serious crimes, which would enable the mobilization of human and financial resources needed to be effectively tackled and would give the EU greater leverage in asking partner countries to prioritise the issue. In addition, the EU and its Member States must commit a similar level of resources and penalties as deployed to fight other serious crimes. 

The proposal addresses main shortcomings of the current Environmental Crime Directive and SWiPE will further analyse the solutions it puts forward and follow the discussions in the European Parliament and the Council in order to make sure that the premises for effectively tackling environmental crimes in the EU are met.

Download WWF’s position for a New Environmental Crime Directive

MORE INFORMATION:

EC Factsheet on new EU law on environmental crime
One of the snares set and used by local poachers who snared a tiger back in 2009, in the Belum-Temengor Forest Complex, Malaysia.