Tougher sanctions for environmental crimes

The Council of the European Union adopted on 26 March 2024 a directive on the protection of the environment, which will improve the investigation and prosecution of environmental crime offences.

Environmental crime is the 3rd largest criminal activity in the world and grows at a rate of up to 7% per year. The most common crimes against the environment include: 

The directive will only apply to offences committed within the EU. 

Compared to the previous directive, the number of conducts that will constitute a criminal offence will increase. New offences include:

According to the new directive, intentional offences which cause the death of a person will carry a maximum prison sentence of at least ten years. Member states may decide to provide for even tougher penalties in their national legislation.

Business entities may be slapped with fines of at least 5% of their total worldwide turnover for the most serious offences or alternatively 40 million euro. For all other offences, the maximum fine will be at least 3% of turnover or alternatively 24 million euro.

Moreover, member states will be allowed to introduce additional measures such as an obligation for the offender to reinstate the environment or compensate for the damage, excluding them from access to public environmental funding or withdrawing their permits or authorisations.

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Member states have two years from the entry into force of the directive to aligh their national legislation with the directive.​