Environmental crimes pose a serious, multidimensional challenge to the European Union and its citizens. Such crimes impact the natural environment, generating increasing levels of pollution, degradation of wildlife and the reduction of biodiversity. Moreover, they disturb the ecological balance, harm entire ecosystems and pose a threat to human health. Often international by nature, these crimes are carried out in connection with other criminal activities, all generating substantial illegal profits. However, environmental crimes are frequently considered secondary to the crimes they are interlinked with and, as a result, the relevant authorities rarely prioritise them.
Eurojust contributes to cracking down on environmental crime by providing support at the judicial level to cross-border operational activities and to targeted training and capacity building for judicial practitioners.
Eurojust is an agency of the European Union