Directive punishes most serious cases of environmental damage, including habitat loss and illegal logging

The European Union has become the first international body to criminalise widescale environmental damage “comparable to ecocide”.

Late on Thursday, lawmakers agreed an update to the bloc’s environmental crime directive punishing the most serious cases of ecosystem destruction, including habitat loss and illegal logging, with tougher penalties.

Marie Toussaint, a French lawyer and MEP spearheading EU efforts to criminalise ecocide, said the move “marks the end of impunity for environmental criminals” and could usher in a new age of environmental litigation in Europe.

The environmental crime directive will be formally passed in the spring, and member states will then have two years to put it into national law.

    • FarraigePlaisteach
      2•1 year ago

      That’s a good point and the EU has to stop outsourcing its own ecocide and human exploitation. Although the rest of the planet is involved in that too.

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    2•1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Late on Thursday, lawmakers agreed an update to the bloc’s environmental crime directive punishing the most serious cases of ecosystem destruction, including habitat loss and illegal logging, with tougher penalties.

    The definition was mainly intended to be adopted by the international criminal court through an amendment to the Rome statute – the key goal of the Stop Ecocide Foundation – but is now increasingly being used for national-level legislation.

    Individuals and companies will have committed a crime if that authorisation was obtained fraudulently or by corruption, extortion or coercion, or if it breaches substantive legal requirements.

    “In the European political context, this text is a point of support for all those who defend the environment in court and fight the impunity of criminal firms who too often flout the laws and work today to unravelling environmental democracy in Europe.”

    Jojo Mehta, co-founder and executive director of Stop Ecocide International, said the updated law would genuinely help member states take environmental harms much more seriously.

    “This is highly significant and to be wholeheartedly commended, and we can see from the rapidly growing momentum of the ecocide law initiative that European states will not be long in engaging more deeply with it in their own jurisdictions.”

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