Pereira, Ricardo --- "The Legal Basis for Harmonisation of Environmental Criminal Law in the EU: Past and Future Challenges" [2012] ELECD 365; in Andenas, Mads; Andersen, Baasch Camilla (eds), "Theory and Practice of Harmonisation" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Theory and Practice of Harmonisation

Editor(s): Andenas, Mads; Andersen, Baasch Camilla

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849800013

Section: Chapter 21

Section Title: The Legal Basis for Harmonisation of Environmental Criminal Law in the EU: Past and Future Challenges

Author(s): Pereira, Ricardo

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

21. The legal basis for harmonisation of
environmental criminal law in the EU:
past and future challenges
Ricardo Pereira*

I INTRODUCTION
The debate over the appropriate legal basis of a legislative measure harmonising
environmental criminal law in the European Union is regarded as being of the
highest political importance, since the competence to define criminal offences
and penalties has traditionally been regarded as belonging to the sphere of
sovereignty of the nation State. However the need to combat crimes effectively,
in particular transnational crimes, has been recognised by the governments of
the EU Member States as a political priority following the abolition of internal
border checks within the EU Member States. The importance of co-operation
in criminal matters (including, when necessary, harmonisation of criminal law)
was hence stressed during the Tampere European Council in 1999 and the 2004
Hague Programme and Action Plan.1
Before the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in December 2009, the Member
States appeared to regard co-operation in criminal matters (including legislative
harmonisation) as belonging to the third pillar of the EU (created by the 1993
Treaty on the European Union), being intergovernmental and hence lacking
supranational controls. However this view has been open to challenge and the
outcome of two legal actions brought by the European Commission against the
Council is that legislative measures harmonising environmental criminal law in


* Lecturer in Environmental and Energy Law, Centre for Environmental Policy,
Imperial College, London, UK.
1
For an overview see Elsen (2007), `From Maastricht to ...