Felix BLOCH

Policy topics Felix BLOCH is active on

What Felix BLOCH has said (4)

• “These qualified offences shall be subject to more severe penalties than those for the other offences. The Directives recitals explained that the qualified offences can encompass cases comparable to ecocide. On this note, we acknowledge that ecocide or similar concepts are already covered by the legal systems of several member states. The Commission follows closely the international developments concerning the definition of, and possible responses to what we call ecocide. Keeping in mind that a strong, harmonised legal framework of criminal offences like the one adopted through the new Environmental Crime Directive, provides legal certainty and predictability and is a great response for effectively combating them. Let me also highlight the important role played by civil society in the fight against environmental crime. This is really important. The efforts of citizens are vital in addressing environmental offences such as destruction of protected wild fauna and flora, wildlife trafficking offences, pollution and waste crimes. Thanks to the Parliament's support in this sense during the negotiations, the directive now contains provisions to support anyone who reports environmental offences, provides evidence or in any other way cooperate with the competent authorities in criminal proceedings. This cooperation is essential as it allows our people on the ground to be more efficient, for example, during the investigations. For this reason, the new Prime Directive sets out an obligation on Member States to grant access to justice to any person having sufficient interest or maintaining the impairment of a right, as well as non-governmental organisations that promote.”
  Nature protection and restoration in the EU · Environmental crimes and justice · EU engagement with civil society
• “Thank you very much, Chair. Good afternoon everybody. Um. Dear chair. Honourable members, members of national parliament, dear Minister Limbach. Uh, I really want to express my gratitude also on behalf for convening the meeting and for inviting us today to speak about the transposition and implementation of the new Environmental Crime Directive. As we all know, environmental crime is a key and very lucrative crime that needs to be dealt with. It counts as the fourth largest criminal activity in the world after drug trafficking. Human trafficking and counterfeiting. Growing at a rate between 5 and 7% each year. Let's keep in mind that environmental crime can have devastating effects on both the environment and on human health, and it's also very often of a cross-border nature. In this context, I am proud that we collectively work together for the adoption of the new Environmental Crime Directive. Negotiations have not been easy. Well, negotiations rarely are. But we manage, together with you and the Council, to strike a deal that I think we can all be proud of. Indeed, this ambitious instrument represents a big step forward compared to the previous directive of 2008. The new directive includes a comprehensive list of 20 environmental offences compared to the 2008 directive. Several new offences categories offence categories are introduced and such as unlawful ship recycling, unlawful water obstruction, serious breaches of union chemicals and mercury legislation, serious breaches related to dealing with fluorinated greenhouse gases and serious breaches of legislation on invasive alien Species of Union concern. In addition, member states are obliged to establish qualified offences where serious damage to or destruction of the environment is caused by committing one of the offences defined in the directive.”
  Environmental crimes and justice · F-gases regulation
• “Thank you. For this reason, the Environmental Crime Directive sets out an obligation for Member States to grant access to justice to any person having sufficient interest or maintaining the impairment of a right, as well as non-governmental organisations that promote environmental protection in accordance with their national law. Finally, to ensure that this instrument is effectively transposed and subsequently effectively implemented in practice. We are currently focusing on its transposition, which is due on 21st May 2026 at the latest, which is soon. I assure you that the European Commission is dedicated to providing meaningful guidance and continuing its collaboration with both the Ministries of Justice and of the environment responsible for the transposition. Moreover, let's not forget about the critical role played by the Ministries of Interior, which need to be involved as well in the transposition process with regard to the enforcement provisions. Seeing the complexity of the topic and the need for a high level of engagement from the ministries, we have indeed already organised one Transposition Workshop with national experts in November 2024, and are now looking forward to hosting the second Transposition Workshop next week, taking place on the 12th of June. The purpose of these transposition workshops is to assist the Member States in the transposition process, and to engage in dialogue about the most difficult and crucial aspects of the directive. All the transposition. At the Transposition workshop, we envisage a two day table giving all Member States the chance to inform and exchange on their national state of play of the transposition.”
  Environmental crimes and justice · EU policy on criminal justice
• “Indeed, we believe that sharing common challenges and seeking for the Commission's and other Member States expertise will be crucial for the successful outcome of the transposition. It has happened so often that the Commission believes that the moment a directive is published in the official journal, that the job is done, but we are very acutely aware that this is not the case. So we are fully supporting member states in that process, which is which can be challenging. Another concrete example of the Commission's support is the workshop, organised in March by the Commission through the Taiex Support Instrument on Environmental Compliance and Governance. At this workshop, Member States had the opportunity to identify what they consider to be priorities for the effective and proper implementation of the directive, such as organising trainings, having appropriate resources and focusing on certain environmental crime categories. Moreover, EU funded life programmes allow the support to support the specialisation of judges, prosecutors and inspectors, especially through the invaluable work of the EU networks of environmental practitioners. Therefore, I would like to emphasize the readiness of the European Commission to assist Member States with any further guidance or support needed for transposition purposes. I now leave the floor to my colleague Peter Juncker, who is Acting Director in DG just for justice policies, and he will give you an overview on other relevant and novel provisions of the directive. Thank you very much for your attention.”
  Due diligence in supply chains (environmental and human rights) · Environmental crimes and justice