"Today is a great day for the environment. The European directive on environmental crimes approved today by the European Parliament contains new crimes, starting with the definition of massacre, a tightening of sanctions, greater protection for those who report and, as proposed by Legambiente, the commitment to facilitate access to justice for associations".
This is how Stefano Ciafani, national president of Legambiente, comments on the vote of the EU Parliament.
"An important step at European level - he underlines - for the contrast and fight against environmental illegalities which will allow us to strengthen in our country what has already been foreseen since 2015 thanks to the introduction of crimes against the environment in the Criminal Code. Also for this reason Italy can give the good example, becoming the first European state to implement the new directive".
"It is urgent to counteract the growth in environmental crime recorded globally by Interpol and Unep with adequate counter strategies, as Europe is finally doing", highlights the note from Legambiente.
"Confirmation comes, as far as Italy is concerned, from the latest data from the Ecomafia report: in 2022 the police forces and the port authorities applied the crimes against the environment envisaged by the Criminal Code 637 times, leading to the reporting of 1,289 people and 56 arrests. 115 assets were seized - continues the note - for a total value of 333,623,900 euros, a clear increase compared to the 227 million euros seized the previous year. The most contested crime was that of organized waste trafficking (art. . 452 quaterdecies) with 268 cases against 151 in 2021, foreseen with adequate penalties also in the new European directive, followed by that of environmental pollution (art. 452 bis) with 64 charges. From their entry into force to today, the application of the several ecoreati was taken 5,099 times".
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