Conservatives Say Yes to an Environmental Europe, No to European Powers of Criminal Prosecution

Wednesday 7 February 2007

Timothy Kirkhope MEP, Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament, warned Labour not to buckle under pressure to cede key new powers to the European Commission over criminal law.

The EU Commission will tomorrow put forward a proposal to require member states to punish environmental crimes with harmonised penalties.  The new law is the result of the controversial European Court of Justice ruling in September 2005, which said for the first time that the European Community is able to set criminal penalties and offences if it is necessary to achieve one of the fundamental objectives of the treaties.

The Court ruled in favour of the Commission, which said that such decisions should be taken under the so-called "Community method" - that is, a co-decision procedure of approval by MEPs and a qualified majority in the Council.

With the Commission tomorrow seeking to transmit the court decision into legislation, this would mean the UK could no longer block a decision by other member states to impose criminal sanctions on certain offences against the environment throughout the EU.

Conservatives support high standards of environmental protection but believe criminal law issues to be the responsibility of member states. Mr Kirkhope said the Commission's proposals were worrying because they could eventually result in other legislation being targeted for EU-wide criminalisation.

Mr Kirkhope said:

"This appears to be a worrying erosion of British sovereignty. Notwithstanding our support for environmental protection, this is a blow to Britain's ability to decide things for ourselves.

"I fear the Commission sees this as an opportunity to extend its powers and start interfering in the criminal law of member states.

"It's a significant transfer of power to the Commission, sanctioned by a Court which tends towards the integrationist approach.

"The decision on whether or not to criminalise offences in Britain should be a matter for Britain, not for the EU. We all support penalties against environmental vandals but this sets an alarming precedent."

ENDS