International Waste Shipment Between the EU Countries in the Context of Criminal Law

This article shows the basic European Union and national regulations with regard to international shipments of waste, such as the Resolution No. 1013/2006 and the Act of 2007 on international shipments of waste in Poland. Procedures which may decrease the negative infl uence of waste on the environment, especially during shipments of hazardous waste, play an important role in this area. For the observance of these procedures, the penal sanction system is useful because it prevents illegal activities in this area. However, an analysis of the statistics of the Supreme Chamber of Control and Police shows that the effectiveness of criminal instruments is not very high. This is evidenced by the low percentage of proceedings under Article 183 of the Penal Code as well as by the poor detection of offenders, and despite the increase in the number of convictions imposed by courts of general jurisdiction, criminal penalties are too lenient