The European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee voted unanimously for tougher sanctions for those guilty of environmental crimes, including imprisonment and fines of up to 10% of a company's global turnover.

Toine Manders, a Dutch lawmaker from the centre-right European People's Party (EPP), is Parliament's lead negotiator on the EU directive on environmental crime that was voted on.

“We have successfully ensured that there is a zero-tolerance stance towards crimes that have huge consequences for human health and the environment,” T. Manders said after the vote on 21 March.

According to EU estimates, environmental crime is one of the most profitable and fastest-growing areas of international criminal activity, with an annual turnover exceeding 200 billion euros.

To address this, the European Commission submitted a proposal in December 2021 to update the existing directive to provide member states with a more coherent framework for deterring and punishing criminals.

In Parliament, lawmakers added new offences to the list of punishable crimes, including illegal timber trade, illegal depletion of water resources, pollution from ships and breaches of EU chemicals legislation.