On 17 January 2025 (09.30-11.30 GMT), IEEP UK will be hosting a webinar examining the 2024 EU Environmental Crime Directive and its significance for UK/EU environmental policy divergence.

In many EU member states criminal prosecutions are few in number with a preference for administrative penalties. To change this, the European Commission has brought in a new Environmental Crime Directive to require the use of criminal sanctions in certain cases, and to level up and harmonise sanctions already in place. This new Directive is a significant upgrade on the previous 2008 Environmental Crime Directive and has several potentially very significant innovations for the UK to consider putting into practice in future. Despite this the UK already carries out many more criminal prosecutions and puts many more individuals in jail for environmental offences than its European peers and the levels of fines in the UK are comparatively high too. The EU is arguably playing ‘catch up’ with the UK but it remains to be seen how the management of environmental crime in the EU member states will evolve under this Directive.

This webinar will feature a keynote speech from Professor Richard Macrory, Emeritus Professor of environmental law at University College London.

There will also be a panel discussion with Q&A featuring speakers from both the UK and the EU and chaired by IEEP’s Chiara Antonelli, Head of Programme for Climate and Circular Economy.

• Anne Brosnan, Chief Prosecutor at the Environment Agency of England
• Rob de Rijk, Chair of the European Network of Prosecutors of the Environment
• Phoebe Clay, Director at Unchecked UK
• Michael Nicholson, Head of Policy at IEEP UK.

This webinar is connected to a recently published report on the Directive published by IEEP UK.

All are welcome to attend. To register for the webinar, please use this Zoom registration link. Once you have registered, you will receive an email confirmation and calendar link. 

For any questions, or if you cannot make the webinar but would be interested in receiving the recording, please get in touch with us at enquiries@ieep.uk.