EFFACE · European Union Action to Fight Environmental Crime

Environmental crime is a threat to environmental, social and economic sustainability and is in conflict with key commitments and strategies of the European Union, including the Europe 2020 Strategy. EFFACE will propose effective and feasible policy options for the EU to combat environmental crime. The recently adopted Environmental Crime Directive, the Ship-Source Pollution Directive, and the new provisions of the Lisbon Treaty have created new instruments and opportunities for increasing the effectiveness of EU measures against environmental crime through harmonisation and co-ordination. However, utilisation of these opportunities suffers from a serious lack of information on environmental crime: e.g. harmonisation measures based on the new Article 83(2) TFEU depend on the availability of reliable information on the impacts of environmental crime. EFFACE will help to address this gap by generating relevant information. Drawing on a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches and data and an in-depth investigation of different types of environmental crime, EFFACE will provide an assessment of the main costs, impacts and causes of environmental crime in the EU, including those linked to the EU, but occurring outside its territory, complemented by a comprehensive analysis of the status quo in terms of existing instruments, actors and institutions. A SWOT analysis will identify strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities associated with the EU’s current efforts to combat environmental crime. Feasible policy options for harmonisation and better co-ordination of actors will then be developed with the help of, i.a., typologies of different approaches to harmonisation, sanctioning and strategic enforcement. These policy options will consider the use of policy mixes and innovative approaches to govern such mixes. Stakeholder involvement in EFFACE through interactive policy analysis will promote mutual learning with and among a broad range of stakeholders.