(26 November 2014) – A new report by Eurojust, the EU’s judicial cooperation body, reveals that organised crime groups (OCGs) are behind cross-border environmental crime, which is seldom prosecuted by national authorities.
At the same time, paradoxically, despite huge profits from these crimes (estimated at USD 30-70 billion per year, according to OECD), statistics show that environmental crime is seldom prosecuted by national authorities.
The number of cases referred to Eurojust is very low, despite the need for a cross-border approach to achieve convictions, which Eurojust explained at a briefing in Brussels on 21 November.
The long list of environmental crimes includes:
- Dangerous waste illegally exported to third States from Italy and Ireland
- Different forms of water pollution in Greece, Hungary and Sweden
- Illegal export of bird eggs and monkeys
This very first report by Eurojust on environmental crime focuses on three topics and looks at national enforcement structures, access to expertise, and possible solutions to tackle the challenges of trafficking in endangered species, illegal trafficking in waste, and surface water pollution.