The EU Environmental Crime Directive 2024: A Revolution in EU Environmental Criminal Law?

On 11 April 2024, the European Union (EU) adopted a new Environmental Crime Directive (ECD) that departs from how the relationship between administrative law and criminal law has previously been defined in EU law. According to the revised ECD, a conduct shall be deemed unlawful when it is in ‘manifest breach of relevant substantive legal requirements’ – even when there is compliance with an administrative permit. With this, the new ECD has de facto created autonomous environmental crimes. This is revolutionary, as in most legal systems criminal liability is not possible if an operator complied with the conditions of a permit. This article argues that this legal development is welcomed as a way to ensure effective environmental criminal enforcement. The question that remains open, however, is how the concept of ‘manifest breach of relevant substantive legal requirements’ will be translated by the Member States during the transposition of the amended ECD into national law. It is argued that it is especially important to find a formulation that can be reconciled with the legality principle, requiring the conditions for criminal liability to be specified in a clear and specific manner whilst ensuring that environmental crimes are held to account.