Expert Hearing on the Federal Government’s Draft Bill to Transpose the Environmental Crime Directive

 

Foto von Claudio Schwarz auf Unsplash

Expert Hearing on the Federal Government’s Draft Bill to Transpose the Environmental Crime Directive

Presentation
Date
Location
Berlin, Germany
Speech
Download written statement

On 6 July 2026, Dr. Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, participated as an expert in a public hearing of the German Bundestag’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection on the Federal Government’s draft bill to amend criminal law – implementing Directive (EU) 2024/1203 on the protection of the environment through criminal law (BT-Drs. 21/6133) – and on other matters under discussion.

Together with six other experts, he commented on the draft bill and answered questions from members of parliament.

Stephan Sina's written statement is published on the website of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection and is available separately as a download here.

A report on the hearing can be found on the Legal Affairs Committee’s website. 

Stephan Sina has been working regularly on German and European environmental criminal law since 2013. Regarding the transposition of the new Environmental Crime Directive, he has, amongst other things, authored a legal opinion for Stop Ecocide Germany on the transposition of the ‘ecocide’ provision of the Directive into German law, and an article for the Swiss specialist journal Jusletter on the significance of the Directive for the prosecution of water-related crimes.

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Organizer
Speech
Date
Location
Berlin, Germany
Language
German
Keywords
environmental crime, Environmental Crime Directive, environmental law, prosecution, compliance, EU
Germany
PublicationArticleDie EU-Umweltstrafrechtsrichtlinie: Der Schlüssel zur konsequenten Verfolgung von Wasserkriminalität?
 

Photo: Canva.com, Page: Weblaw AG, 2026

For the special issue on “Water Crime – Water Protection and Criminal Law” of Switzerland’s largest (online) legal journal, Jusletter, published on 1 June 2026, Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at the Ecologic Institute, has written an article on the EU Environmental Crime... Read more

Stephan Sina, Die EU-Umweltstrafrechtsrichtlinie: Der Schlüssel zur konsequenten Verfolgung von Wasserkriminalität?, in: Jusletter 1. Juni 2026

PublicationReportDie Umsetzung der "Ökozid"-Regelung der überarbeiteten Umweltstrafrechts-Richtlinie in deutsches Recht
 
Cover of the legal opinion 'Implementation of the 'Ecocide' Regulation of the Revised Environmental Criminal Law Directive into German Law' by Dr. Stephan Sina, published on May 13, 2025, Ecologic Institute.

© Ecologic Institute, 2025

In 2024, the EU comprehensively revised its Environmental Crime Directive (ECD). In the trilogue negotiations, the European Parliament succeeded in including qualified criminal offences that are comparable to 'ecocide'. These are criminal offences under the ECD... Read more

Sina, Stephan 2025: Die Umsetzung der "Ökozid"-Regelung der überarbeiteten Umweltstrafrechts-Richtlinie in deutsches Recht. Ecologic Institut, Berlin.

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Photo: Compassion Over Killing, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, Cover: Umweltbundesamt, 2026

This publication provides a quantitative overview of the development and status of environmental crime in Germany between 2013 and 2024, based on data from the police crime statistics ("Polizeiliche Kriminalstatistik") and the Federal Statistical Office's criminal... Read more

Sina, Stephan; Jenny Tröltzsch, Ida Meyenberg (2026): Umweltdelikte 2024. Auswertung von Statistiken. Dessau-Roßlau: Umweltbundesamt.

PresentationPanel discussionAmendments to the EU Environmental Crime Directive
 

© Stephan Sina

Dr Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow at Ecologic Institute, took part in a panel discussion in the Bundestag as part of a workshop on environmental crime organised by Bündnis90/Die Grünen. In his keynote speech, he outlined the most important innovations of the amended EU... Read more

Panel discussion:Amendments to the EU Environmental Crime Directive

Date
Location
online and Berlin, Germany
PresentationSpeechHearing on Strengthening the Fight Against Environmental Crime in NRW
 

Photo: 652234 | Pixabay.com

 

On 19 January 2022, Dr. Stephan Sina, Senior Fellow of Ecologic Institute, participated as an expert in a hearing of the Committee for Environment, Agriculture, Nature and Consumer Protection of the North Rhine-Westphalian Parliament on the motion of the parliamentary... Read more

Speech:Hearing on Strengthening the Fight Against Environmental Crime in NRW

Date
Location
Düsseldorf, Germany
PublicationReportStatus quo und Weiterentwicklung des Umweltstrafrechts und anderer Sanktionen
 
UBA TEXTE 135/2019
A 2018 report co-published by Interpol estimates the annual turnover generated by environmental crime at 110 - 281 billion US dollars. Environmental crime causes significant damage to the environment and public health. This report presents insights on environmental... Read more

Gerstetter, Christiane et. al. 2019: Status quo und Weiterentwicklung des Umweltstrafrechts und anderer Sanktionen: Instrumente zur Verbesserung der Befolgung von Umweltrecht (Compliance). Umweltbundesamt: Dessau-Roßlau.