On 10 December in Strasbourg, Justice Minister Inese Lībiņa-Egnere signed the Council of Europe (CoE) Convention on Environmental Criminal Protection, reaffirming Latvia’s commitment to strengthening the fight against criminal offenses against the environment and promoting a unified European approach to investigating and prosecuting environmental crimes.
The convention is a comprehensive CoE instrument aimed at criminalizing environmental harm and harmonizing the European approach to sanctioning serious environmental offenses. It provides that the most severe offenses against the environment should be criminally punishable, ensuring effective penalties for both natural and legal persons. This applies to significant pollution, unauthorized transport and management of waste, destruction of protected areas, violations of wild plant and animal species protection, and other environmental damages.
The convention also strengthens cross-border cooperation and mutual legal assistance. Unified European standards will allow countries to exchange information more quickly, coordinate investigations more effectively, and better prevent such offenses, particularly in areas where legal frameworks have previously differed.
By signing the convention, Justice Minister Inese Lībiņa-Egnere emphasized: “Latvia has already achieved much in environmental protection, yet environmental pollution has cross-border effects, so global challenges require common standards and coordinated action. For the Ministry of Justice, which develops criminal policy in Latvia, it is essential that mechanisms in Europe are strengthened to effectively prevent, investigate, and prosecute serious environmental crimes. In the context of Ukraine, we see how destructive such actions can be – the aggressor state Russia is currently the largest polluter in Europe. This reality once again demonstrates that environmental harm can have severe consequences for human health and safety not only today but for future generations as well.”
Signing the convention demonstrates Latvia’s readiness to participate in Europe-wide initiatives focused on environmental protection and combating criminal offenses whose consequences may be long-term and irreversible. It also strengthens Latvia’s legal cooperation opportunities with other CoE member states.