The State Environmental Inspectorate will join the Council of Europe working group on combating environmental crime.
The State Environmental Inspectorate has been officially invited to join the Working Group on Environment and Criminal Law, established by the European Committee on Crime Problems at the Council of Europe. Together with experienced European institutions, bodies, and associations, the State Environmental Inspectorate will develop solutions to combat the growing number of environmental crimes. In total, 17 European countries, including Germany, France, Switzerland, and Finland, have joined the cooperation. This was announced by the Head of the State Environmental Inspectorate, Andriy Malyovany.
«Members of the working group will cooperate in the following areas:
- Identifying key environmental risks both in Europe as a whole and in individual states;
- Analyzing national criminal law systems, identifying their weaknesses, and exchanging experience for their reform;
- Evaluating existing penalty systems in European states, developing proposals for their modification;
- Defining the main principles of criminal and environmental law that should be implemented in all European countries», - said Andriy Malyovany.
The official emphasized that participation in the working group is important for the effective reform of environmental control.
«We will establish cooperation with leading European institutions, study and analyze their work and practical cases, and based on this, work to make environmental control in Ukraine more effective», - noted Andriy Malyovany.
He also noted that the increase in environmental crime is observed not only in Ukraine but also worldwide. According to Interpol, environmental offenses are the fourth largest criminal sector on the planet. Annually, nature suffers losses amounting to 91 to 258 billion dollars.
«Recently, the President of Ukraine declared the fight against environmental crimes a priority task of criminal policy. The successful experience of European countries is very important for building an effective system to counter such offenses in our country», - added Andriy Malyovany.