European Union standards in the criminal law protection of the environment

Kostić Jelena (Institut za uporedno pravo, Beograd), j.kostic@iup.rs

Although not explicitly stated in international documents, the right to a healthy environment can be considered a third-generation right. It is protected at the European Union (EU) level by the European Court of Human Rights through the protection of the right to life, property, information, etc. In addition, there is a consensus at the EU level that the right to a healthy environment also needs to be protected by criminal law provisions, which should represent the ultima ratio. Although at the level of the member states, the first criminal offences aimed at protecting the environment began to be prescribed in national legislation as early as the 1970s and 1980s, there has been no unified approach to combating environmental crime at the EU level. Defining the act of committing a crime in different ways and taking different approaches to combating it has not contributed to international cooperation. That is particularly evident in the area of combating environmental crime, which has a cross-border nature. Since criminal acts that can be classified as environmental crimes are lucrative and are often linked to criminal acts that can be classified as organised crime, their effectiveness in combating them requires special attention, as well as a multidisciplinary approach with adequate cooperation between competent authorities and institutions at both the national and international levels. In this paper, the author devotes attention to the analysis of the development of criminal law protection of the environment at the EU level, given that the need for its improvement still exists, as evidenced by the fact that in 2024, a new EU Directive on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law was adopted.

Keywords: Environment, criminal law protection, prevention, EU, international cooperation