10/04/2025 Session
PACE has welcomed the draft Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law, which is set to become “the first international legally binding instrument to address environmental crime”, but expressed concern that it still lacks ambition and scope in several areas.
Under the procedure for the drafting of a Council of Europe treaty, the Assembly must give its opinion before it is adopted by the organisation’s executive body. The draft Convention is due to be submitted to the Committee of Ministers for adoption on 14 May 2025, as part of a broader environmental package.
Approving its opinion today based on a report by Yuliia Ovchynnykova (Ukraine, ALDE), the Assembly welcomed the draft Convention’s emphasis on prevention of environmental crimes and broad coverage of punishable offences while urging stronger protections and wider scope.
The Assembly voiced concerns that the scope of the monitoring mechanism had been weakened during negotiations, and that the draft omitted some key offences such as unlawful fishing and illegal logging. It stressed that the need to “strengthen the balance of provisions, render the draft Convention more comprehensive and enable a more effective prosecution of environmental crimes”.
PACE proposed a series of targeted amendments, including the reinstatement of an article on unlawful fishing as a criminal offence; the inclusion of “negligence” alongside “intent” in the definition of particularly serious criminal acts; and the codification of ecocide into both national and international legal frameworks.
It also recommended that the Explanatory Report accompanying the Convention include definitions of key legal terms – such as “irreversible”, “widespread”, “substantial” and “long-lasting” – to provide legal clarity and guide member states in implementation.
Finally, the Assembly called on the Committee of Ministers to allocate the necessary resources to promote the Convention’s signature and ratification, and to ensure its entry into force.