New EU crimes include pollution caused by ships, mercury use, and the illegal depletion of water resources.

A provisional agreement on an update of EU environmental crimes and sanctions rules to strengthen ecosystem protection will include, among other offences, the import and use of mercury and fluorinated greenhouse gases, the import of invasive species, the illegal depletion of water resources, and pollution caused by ships.

EU negotiators also agreed on stricter sanctions for so-called qualified offences, such as those causing the destruction of an ecosystem or habitat within a protected site or damage to air, soil or water quality. These would include offences comparable to ‘ecocide’ with catastrophic results such as widespread pollution or large-scale forest fires.

Individuals, including company representatives, committing environmental offences leading to death could be sentenced to imprisonment for 10 years. Qualified offences would be punishable by eight years in prison, while for other criminal offences, depending on factors such as the durability, severity or reversibility of the damage, the punishment would be a five–year prison sentence.

The same sanctions may be expected for companies, as alongside other punishments such as the withdrawal of licences, bans on access to public funding, or closure.

Following the agreement, European Parliament rapporteur Antonius Manders (EPP, NL) said: “We successfully negotiated a zero-tolerance position on environmental crimes that have huge consequences for human health and the environment. It is crucial that we fight these cross-border crimes at EU level with harmonised, dissuasive, and effective sanctions to prevent new environmental crimes.”

The agreed draft law requires formal approval by the Legal Affairs Committee and the European Parliament as a whole, as well as by the Council, before it can enter into force.

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