Criminal law policy of the EU countries in the field of combating environmental crimes

The purpose of this article is to identify the main trends of development of criminal legal policy of EU countries in the field of combating crimes against the environment in the context of growing global environmental crisis and the development of consumer society the example of France, Germany, Spain and Italy, the features of statutory regulation of the characteristics of environmental crimes and prescribe the penalties in the legislation of the countries under consideration. The relevance of the problem under study is due to a significant degree of public danger of environmental crimes, their high latency, and therefore the fight against encroachments on the environment is recognized as one of the priority areas of the criminal policy of the EU countries. Criminal legislation plays a crucial role in the system of legal norms for countering environmental crimes. Conclusions. Despite the legal integration of EU countries in the field of environmental protection and the adoption of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19.11.2008, which imposes obligations on member States to introduce certain elements of criminal acts into national legislation, the constitutional and criminal law norms of individual States do not differ in a uniform approach to environmental protection. However, the legislative regulations of the European Parliament have influenced the reform of criminal legislation in a number of countries in the direction of increasing responsibility for environmental crimes and introducing special chapters in the criminal codes that combine criminal acts that infringe on natural objects. The importance of the natural environment, flora and fauna as independent objects of criminal law protection is underestimated, so the severity of criminal repression depends on such a sign as causing harm to human health and life by environmental offenses.

environmental pollution, environmental disaster, trafficking of harmful and radioactive substances, deliberate and careless crimes against the environment