4 Networks Conference, Virtual 2021

On 21 May 2021 more than 150 judges, prosecutors, environmental enforcement authorities, police officers and EC officials attended the first virtual 4 Networks Day. After two successful joint conferences in 2016 in Utrecht (NL) and in 2017 in Oxford (UK), IMPEL, EnviCrimeNet, ENPE, and EUFJE organised this virtual event with the support of LIFE+ SATEC Project, to bring together specialised practitioners involved in fighting environmental crime.

The overall aim of the 4 Networks events is to improve enforcement of environmental law and to join forces by bringing regulators, inspectors, police officers, prosecutors and judges together. Even if the work of police, prosecutors and judges focusses more immediately on fighting environmental crime,  trust and understanding amongst all actors of the compliance chain is a prerequisite for successful collaboration at the level of practitioners, and an important way to achieve this, is active networking.

The 4 Networks day concentrated on two key topics:

• The revision of the Directive 2008/99/EC on environmental crime (“ECD”), and;
• The next EU multi-annual Policy Cycle to tackle Organised and Serious International Crime (2022-2025).

In the afternoon, participants debated in 5 parallel, case-oriented workshops on the evaluation of ecological damages in court (BIOVAL), Shipment of Waste Enforcement Actions (SWEAP), Illegal plastic waste shipment, Wildlife crime, F-gasses and biodiesel fraud.

The 4 Networks Day has led to 2 Statements of the 4 Networks on the above mentioned key topics; theECD and the EU Policy Cycle.

The two Statements of the Networks will be brought to the attention of the EU institutions during the Environmental Compliance and Governance Forum on 2 June 2021, during the Green Week and will be sent to the institutions with competence in each matter (European Commission and EU Council).