13 Amendments of Anna Júlia DONÁTH related to 2021/0422(COD)
Amendment 176 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 14
Recital 14
(14) Sanctions for the offences should be effective, dissuasive and proportionate. To this end, minimum levels for the maximum term of imprisonment should be set for natural persons. Accessorydditional sanctions are often seen as being more effective than financial sanctifor natural persons - especially for legal persons. Additional sanctions or measures should be therefore available in criminal proceedings. These should include the obligation to reinstate the environment, exclusion from access to public funding, including tender procedures, grants and concessions and withdrawal of permits and authorisations. This is without prejudice to the discretion of judges or courts in criminal proceedings to impose appropriate sanctions in the individual casesin the form of an obligation to reinstate the environment or finance its reinstatement within a reasonable timeframe, where such restoration is possible, or other forms of sanctions with financial consequences, such as fines - can have complementary, and sometimes even more important deterrent effect and therefore the use of such additional sanctions should be encouraged whenever possible.
Amendment 177 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 14 a (new)
Recital 14 a (new)
(14 a) For legal persons, minimum level of fines should be established as a primary sanction. However, a combination with accessory sanctions is often seen as being more effective than financial sanctions alone. Additional sanctions or measures should be therefore available. These should include the obligation to reinstate the environment or finance its reinstatement, where such reinstatement is possible, within a reasonable timeframe, obligation to engage in or finance activities that contribute to the conservation of and/ or preservation of the environment, exclusion from access to public funding, including tender procedures, grants and concessions and withdrawal of permits and authorisations. This is without prejudice to the discretion of judges or courts in criminal proceedings to impose appropriate sanctions in the individual cases. However, given that the main victim of the offences referred to in this Directive is the environent as such, the use of sanctions that lead to the reinstatement of the environment should be encouraged whenever possible.
Amendment 206 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 30
Recital 30
(30) To ensure an effective, integrated and coherent enforcement system that includes administrative, civil and criminal law measures, Member States should organise internal cooperation and communication between all actors along the administrative and criminal enforcement chains and between punitive and remedial sanctioning actors. Member States should also ensure assistance, coordination and coperation at strategic and operational level between each other as well as with third countries. Following the applicable rules, Member States should also cooperate through EU agencies, in particular Eurojust and Europol, as well as with EU bodies, including the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) and the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), in their respective areas of competence. The EPPO, with its own powers and authority to coordinate investigations and prosecutions in cross-border cases, is currently best placed to combat the most serious environmental crimes, therefore an extention of its mandate is imminently necessary and the Commission should present a report to this end, assessing the possibilities and modalities. The extension of the EPPO´s mandate would ensure that those environmental crimes for which reinforcement of the criminal law response is unlikely to be achieved through traditional channels of judicial cooperation, are adequately addressed.
Amendment 378 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 9 – paragraph 1 – point a
Article 9 – paragraph 1 – point a
(a) the offender restores natureinstates the environment to its previous condition, where such reinstatement is possible and where it has been carried out voluntarily and before the beginning of the criminal proceedings;
Amendment 416 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 12 a (new)
Article 12 a (new)
Article 12 a National funds for preventing and combatting environmental crime and facilitation of environmental protection 1. Member States shall, within 9 months from the entry into force of this Directive, establish and maintain a national fund, or where relevant adjust such an existing fund, aimed at combatting environmental crime and facilitation of environmental protection, including, for example, through financing of: a) prevention measures, including but not limited to those referred to in Article 15; b) combatting environmental crime, more specifically, the national authorities that detect, investigate, prosecute or adjudicate environmental offences, including for the purposes referred to in Articles 16, 17, 18 and 19; c) facilitation of environmental protection, including financing rescue centers that take adequate care for confiscated live animals. 2. The fund shall be financed at least through: a) the criminal and non-criminal fines as referred to in Articles 5 and 7; b) the proceeds derived from and instrumentalities used or intended to be used in the commission or contribution to the commission of the offence that have been confiscated in accordance with Article 10 of this Directive; c) where the complete reinstatement of the environment is not possible, the cost of the residual damage, paid by the offender;
Amendment 429 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 15 – paragraph 1
Article 15 – paragraph 1
Member States shall take appropriate action, such as research and education programmes, including studies on the origin and motivation for committing environmental crimes as well as information and awareness- raising campaigns and research and education programmes,, including on proactive law enforcement and anti-corruption measures, and targeting the general public, the private sector as well as national authorities with the aim to reduce overall number of environmental criminal offences, raise public awareness and reduce the risk of population of becoming a victim of an environmental criminal offence. Where appropriate, Member States shall act in cooperation with the relevant stakeholders, including experts, civil society organisations focused on environmental protection and competent authorities which detect, investigate, prosecute and adjudicate environmental criminal offences.
Amendment 431 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 15 – paragraph 1 a (new)
Article 15 – paragraph 1 a (new)
Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that pending the investigation, prosecution or adjudication of the environmental offences referred to in Article 3 and 4, the competent authorities may adopt interim measures, including an environmental injunction, for immediate cessation of the illegal activity, if such an activity is still ongoing, in order to prevent further damages to the environment.
Amendment 433 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 16 – paragraph 1
Article 16 – paragraph 1
Member States shall ensure thatdesignate and regularly train a sufficient number of specialised staff within its national authorities which carry out inspections, detect, investigate, prosecute or adjudicate environmental offences have a sufficient number of qualified staff and, including through the establishment of dedicated specialised departments or units, and ensure that these national authorities have sufficient financial, technical and technological resources necessary for the effective performance of their functions related to the implementation of this Directive. Member States shall assign specialised judicial authorities for the adjudication of environmental crimes, or alternatively, ensure, at least, that general criminal courts provide for specialised environmental chambers.
Amendment 436 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 17 – paragraph 1
Article 17 – paragraph 1
Without prejudice to judicial independence and differences in the organisation of the judiciary across the Union, Member States shall request those responsible for the training of judges, prosecutors, police, judicial staff and competent authorities’ staff involved in criminal proceedings and investigations to provide at regular intervals specialised training with respect toto ensure the effective achievement of the objectives of this Directive and appropriate to the functions of the involved staff and authorities. The specialised training shall also cover the practical use of investigative tools avialable to fight environmental crime, as referred to in Article 18 of this Directive, as well as effective cooperation between different competent authorities.
Amendment 438 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 17 – paragraph 1 a (new)
Article 17 – paragraph 1 a (new)
Member States shall ensure that those responsible for these trainings have sufficient, stable and predictable finacing available for the regular organisation of the trainings.
Amendment 439 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 17 – paragraph 1 b (new)
Article 17 – paragraph 1 b (new)
The Commission shall, within a reasonable timeframe, take the necessary measures to ensure that the online training for law enforcement authorities provided by the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training (CEPOL) is available in all official EU languages in order to allow for the maximisation of the number of recipients of the training.
Amendment 449 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 19 – paragraph 1 a (new)
Article 19 – paragraph 1 a (new)
Member States shall ensure that, where relevant, their competent authorities that detect, investigate, procesute or adjudicate environmental offences referred to in Article 3 and 4, exchange information, consult and actively cooperate with relevant bodies at EU level, such as Europol and Eurojust, and including OLAF and EPPO to the extent relevant to their respective competences.
Amendment 450 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 19 a (new)
Article 19 a (new)