WRITTEN QUESTION E-0087/03

by Kathleen Van Brempt (PSE) to the Commission

(28 January 2003)

Subject: Trade in endangered species of animals

The general public in the EU is increasingly interested in rare and exotic protected species of animals. There is now a real international network of shrewd operators trading in such species. The continuing existence of an illegal market is undermining the efforts of those traders who comply with the law.

Has the Commission any knowledge of the smuggling of animals into the EU? If so, can it provide figures for the smuggling of animals into the EU during the past five years?

What proportion of this illegal trade in animals is accounted for by Belgium? Can the Commission provide figures for the smuggling of animals into or via Belgium during the past five years?

What is the Commission doing to combat the smuggling of animals and is it giving animal traders who want to find out about their obligations the means to do so? If so, what means and how often?

Is the Commission giving encouragement, imposing requirements and/or providing financial assistance to Member States to enable them to improve the implementation and enforcement of legislation?

Is the Commission encouraging Member States to cooperate in the implementation and enforcement of legislation through the exchange of information, knowledge and experience?

What is the Commission doing to help minimise the differences between Member States and harmonise criminal law provisions, for example?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(10 March 2003)

Information about seizures and confiscations in the Member States from the years 1997-2000 is contained in the Biennial Reports 1997/1998 and 1999/2000 on the implementation and enforcement of Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97 of 9 December 1996 on the protection of species of wild fauna and flora by regulating trade therein(1).

The Commission cannot provide information on the proportion of illegal trade accounted for by Belgium. However, there is information on confiscations and seizures in Belgium.

While combating the smuggling of animals is mainly the responsibility of Member States, the Commission provides assistance. It has contracted Traffic Europe, the wildlife trade monitoring programme of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), to monitor the implementation of the wildlife trade regulations in the Union and to assist the responsible authorities in Member States on questions related to enforcement. The Commission also chairs an Enforcement Group in which Member States come together to examine technical questions related to enforcement.

The most obvious contacts for animal traders are the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Management Authorities in Member States. The Commission itself has a webpage concerning CITES and the Union wildlife trade regulations on Europa (http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/environment/cites/home_en.htm). It is also currently planning an information campaign for wildlife trade controls in the Union which should make commercial operators, such as wildlife importers, wholesalers and retailers, more aware of the detailed provisions in the wildlife trade Regulations regarding commercial activities as well as the provisions regarding the proper care of live specimens. This campaign should start in spring 2003. This specifically targeted campaign will complement a previous information effort aimed at the general public.

The Commission works closely with Member States in the Committee on Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora, the Scientific Review Group and in the above-mentioned Enforcement Group. The meetings of these Groups provide the possibility of exchanging information, knowledge and experience. The improvement and harmonisation of implementation measures is one of the tasks of the Committee on Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora.

With regard to sanctions these are largely within the competence of Member States and Article 16 of Regulation 338/97 provides that Member States take appropriate measures to ensure the imposition of sanctions for a number of infringements. The Commission has subsidized a Workshop on the Enforcement of Wildlife Trade Controls in the Union in 2001, where the issue of sanctions was discussed.

At a broader level, it should be mentioned that, in 2001, the Commission proposed a Directive of the Parliament and the Council on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law(2) which proposes criminal sanctions for offences against the environment. This also covers the trading of protected wild fauna and flora species or parts thereof. This proposal for a directive is limited to requiring that Member States impose criminal penalties for breaches of environmental law. It leaves Member States considerable freedom to decide what type of criminal penalties they wish to impose, provided they are effective, proportionate and dissuasive, in accordance with the rulings on penalties issued by the Court of Justice. The legislative procedure to adopt this proposal for a Directive is stopped for the moment. The Council adopted on 27 January 2003 a Framework-decision on the protection of the environment through criminal law in the context of judicial cooperation. It obliges Member States to punish intentional and negligent offences to the environment, including the trading of protected wild fauna and flora species or parts thereof.

(1) OJ L 61, 3.3.1997.

(2) Proposal for a Directive of the Parliament and the Council on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law OJ C 180, 26.6.2001 and amended proposal for a Directive of the Parliament and the Council on the Protection of the Environment through Criminal Law OJ C 20 E, 28.1.2003.