Roel Meeus, De sanctionering door de lidstaten van inbreuken op het Europees milieurecht: tussen handhavingsnood, sanctieverplichtingen en rechtswaarborgen [The sanctioning by the Member States of breaches of European environmental law: between enforcement need, sanctioning requirements and protective requirements]

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  • Promoter: Prof. Dr. Luc Lavrysen
  • Co-promoter: Dr. Carole M. Billiet
     

It is well-known that the environmental law applicable in the Member States of the European Union is, for the most part, of EU origin. The influence of EU law on the substantial environmental policies of the Member States can therefore hardly be overestimated. On the enforcement level however, the sanctioning of offences against EU (environmental) law has always been primarily a task of the Member States. Environmental directives and regulations often make no mention of how they should be sanctioned or simply refer to the national law of the Member States. The EU is therefore largely dependent on the Member States for the enforcement of its environmental directives and regulations. Unfortunately, Member States generally don’t seem to be doing a very good job, resulting in an enforcement deficit in EU environmental law.

This PhD research analyzes the sanctioning of EU environmental law offences on the level of the Member States and the requirements set by the EU institutions in this regard. The way in which the EU pushes forward Member State enforcement of EU environmental law in the desired direction can be described as 'enforcement norm-setting': the development of instrumental requirements for enforcement measures at Member State level. Firstly, the Court of Justice in its jurisdiction gradually derived some instrumental enforcement requirements from the principle of loyal cooperation laid down in Article 4(3) TEU. More specifically, the sanctions that Member States prescribe for violations of EU law must be non-discriminatory (compared to the sanctioning of pure national law violations of a similar nature and importance), effective, proportionate and dissuasive. Moreover, Member States must proceed with respect to EU law violations with the same diligence as they bring to bear in implementing corresponding national laws. These requirements are binding on Member States and constitute the boundaries of their enforcement autonomy. Secondly, the EU legislator sometimes already incorporates specific sanctions in environmental directives and regulations that Member States subsequently have to implement in their domestic legal order. Usually these specific sanctions are sectorally addressed without any reference to their (criminal or administrative) nature. The Eco Crime Directive 2008/99/EC and the recently amended Ship Source Pollution Directive 2005/35/EC are, however, different in that they oblige Member States to use criminal sanctions for certain ‘serious’ environmental offences. Next to the analysis of the EU sanctioning requirements the issue is also raised whether sanctions for EU violations should not only be implemented in law but also in practice in case of breach. Attention is also paid to the provisions in environmental directives and regulations that have to be enforced: what is the need for enforcement regarding EU environmental law? Finally the protective requirements under the EU Charter, the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) are taken into consideration.