EU May Make Harming Environment a Crime [View All]

[jpak]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-eur/2007/feb/09/020900319.html

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - Harming the environment should be treated as a crime, the European Commission said Friday as it put forward a draft law that would punish serious offenses across the EU with up to five years in prison or a $975,000 fine.

The rules would also allow courts put a company out of business and order ungreen criminals to clean up the environment.

They would punish people and companies behind environmental disasters - such as the Dutch trader that chartered the ship blamed for dumping of illegal toxic waste in Ivory Coast last summer that killed 10, the EU executive said.

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said corporations were behind 73 percent of crimes against the environment.

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