The external dimensions of the EU legislative initiatives to combat environmental crime

The recognition of the seriousness and transboundary impacts of environmental crime has led to the adoption of specific legislative initiatives to combat environmental crime at both the international and European level. Yet although the EU member states have adopted successfully in 2008 a legal framework for harmonisation of environmental criminal law, the 1998 Council of Europe environmental crime convention has so far not entered into force, even more than fifteen years since its adoption. This paper examines the legal implications in a scenario in which a EU member state becomes bound by both the Council of Europe and the EU environmental crime instruments. In particular, it examines the extent to which the Council of Europe instrument could affect the EU common rules or alter their scope, thus hindering the external powers of the EU member states to ratify and negotiate independently the Council of Europe convention. This paper also discusses the extent to which the legality of the EU environmental crime directive may be effectively challenged in light of multilateral environmental agreements