The EU Environmental Crime Directive

Directive 2008/98/EC on the protection of the environment through criminal law (the ECD) – enacted when shared competences in criminal matters now provided for by Article 83 TFEU had not yet been conferred on the EU – sets a binding minimum standard for environmental protection through criminal law. A decade after its enactment, a critical assessment of the rationale and content of this instrument contributes to a better understanding of the potential and limitations of criminal law in the protection of the environment in the specific context of approximation of criminal law within the EU. At the same time, it provides the grounds to assess the actual impact of the ECD on Member States’ environmental criminal law and on the levels of environmental protection in the EU. Finally, also in the light of both the institutional developments at the EU level subsequent to its enactment, and the information on the current extent and characteristics of environmental crime as a criminal phenomenon, a critical assessment of the ECD allows better foundations for assessing which actions and systems should be put into place in order to deter environmental crime and to provide legitimate, appropriate and effective responses where environmental crime occurs.