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ENPE President Anne Brosnan and ENPE Supporting Member Teodor Nita participated in the European Academy of Law (ERA) training workshop on EU legislation to combat Wildlife Crime and Illegal logging in Trier, Germany on the 5th and 6th of February.
Presenting background information on EU environmental law, with case studies included, the training was well received by the delegates who comprised prosecutors and regulatory specialists from across the EU.
We are very pleased to be sharing our latest ENPE newsletter with members, partners and stakeholders. This latest issue, number 21, includes details of a very busy few months since our annual conference in Rome in September. We hope you enjoy it, and as ever, welcome your feedback!
This conference builds on the success of the last 4 Networks online event – Together in the fight against environmental crime in 2021 as well as the two previous conferences held in person in Oxford in 2017 and Utrecht in 2016. Environmental crime is the fourth largest criminal activity in the world and we note, at a global level, the progressive worsening of the situation, as recorded in reports from many institutions.
The European Network of Prosecutors for the Environment, ENPE was established as an informal network of prosecutors in September 2012, in Brussels, Belgium with 8 members representing prosecuting organisations from 7 different European countries. Since then, we have enjoyed steady but significant growth, including expansion beyond Europe to include member organisations from Latin America and North Africa, to become a registered international non-profit association with 59 organisation and individual members, representing 35 different countries.
The following short film from Anne Brosnan, president of ENPE, gives an overview of the work we do and how important prosecuting environmental crime is to the World.
The following video is a webinar from the Waste working group, explaining some of the basic obstacles prosecutors may come across.
Our latest conference was held on the 28th to 30th October 2019, jointly with Eurojust, the EU’s Judicial Cooperation Unit. Click here to view the event website.
This year the conference focused on concrete steps to improve the fight against environmental offences, including serious and organised crime.
Click the button below to read articles and speaker profiles and view videos recorded during the event.
The 2019 ENPE conference was held in conjunction with Eurojust at their superb conference facility in their head office in The Hague, Netherlands from 28-30 October 2019. The conference started with an 'ice-breaker' event at the impressive panorama Mesdaq museum followed by 2 days of intensive plenary, break-out and facilitated workshops sessions focussing on global collaboration and co-operation in the fight against environmental crime.
The European Network of Prosecutors for the Environment (ENPE) promotes the enforcement of environmental criminal law by supporting the operational work of environmental prosecutors. Through the EU LIFE programme, ENPE is managing a five-year project to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of prosecution of environmental crimes through its LIFE-ENPE Working Groups. The LIFE-ENPE waste and air pollution Working Groups held a combination of 2 workshops in Nicosia, Cyprus on the 28-29 March 2019.
Our latest conference was held on the 23 & 24 October 2018, jointly with the Life Reason for Hope project; Life Natura-themis project and the IMPEL Water Pollution Crimes Working Group at the Heraklion Museum of Natural History in Heraklion, Crete. Click here to view the event website.
This workshop, which was held jointly with the UNEP Convention on Migratory Species, and Chaired by Lars Magnusson (ENPE Board member and LIFE-ENPE Wildlife Working Group chair), was attended by 37 delegates and speakers in total, coming from 16 different countries across Europe and Mediterranean region, including Israel, Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria. The venue was the Centro Nacional de Educaion Ambiental (CENEAM), in Valsain near Segovia, Spain. Set in the peaceful surroundings of the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park.
ENPE announces annual conference details: 23-24 October 2018; Natural history museum of Crete, Heraklion, Crete.
In October 2015 the Dublin Circuit Court fined a landfill operator €20 million for nuisance odours and pollution offences. This ground-breaking prosecution on behalf of the Irish Environmental Protection Agency helps send an important deterrent message to environmental criminals.
In September 2016 Italian prosecutors won a precedent case concerning illegal killing of Northern Bald Ibis (Geronticus eremita). This is of interest particularly for the collaborative approach to evidence gathering and successful prosecution, its wider context and the possibility of follow-on action it raises.
For the first time, four key European Environment Networks have joined together to host a conference, held 12 and 13 May 2016 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, of 194 participants from 35 countries in Europe with the explicit task of working to strengthen enforcement of EU environment and nature law and the compliance chain as a whole.