WRITTEN QUESTION E-1514/02 by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission. Illegal trafficking in live animals.
Date: 2002-05-29
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Central and Eastern European countries, EU law, accession to the European Union, environmental law, environmental offence, exchange of information, fight against crime, illicit trade, judicial inquiry, protection of animals

C 301 E/166

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

5.12.2002

proceed in a controlled manner without causing damaging changes in prices, inter alia for the products of
sawmills. Renewable energy production and the significance of forests for climate change also, at the least,
require further study. In addition, the significance of forestry as a source of employment in rural areas
deserves special consideration.

Could the Commission establish some kind of system for following up the forestry strategy, for example
the drafting of brief, concise reports every four years or periodic broadly-based conferences at which the
views of experts could be heard? This would provide better information within the EU concerning current
challenges and priorities for action. Such a follow-up would clarify the EU’s forestry strategy. A further
step might be to draw up action programmes for a few years at a time on the basis of the results of the
follow-up, by means of which the coordination of action and the commitment of the various parties
concerned thereto could be improved.

Answer given by Mr Fischler on behalf of the Commission

(3 July 2002)

The Forestry Strategy, as agreed in Council Resolution of 15 December 1998 (1), builds on sustainable
management and the multi-functional role of forests, the principle of subsidiarity and commitments
adopted at international processes related to forests.

The Strategy emphasises the need for effective co-ordination between different sectorial policies which
have an influence on forests and forestry, and co-ordination at Community level.

In its Resolution, the Council invites the Commission to report to the Council on the implementation of
this Forestry Strategy within five years.

The Commission endorsed on 12 December 2001 an inter-service agreement through which it committed
itself to prepare a report on the implementation of this Strategy up to the year 2003.

At the same time an Inter-services Group on the forestry sector was set-up, with the aim to improve the
co-ordination and the exchange of information between the relevant Commission services on activities
related to the forestry sector. This Inter-services Group will meet in the second half of 2002 in order to
discuss the preparation of this implementation report. Within this process, progress on follow-up to the
communication forest-based and related industries (2) will also be taken into account.

The Honourable Member’s suggestion for
consideration in these discussions.

following up the Forestry Strategy will be taken into

(1) OJ C 56, 26.2.1999.
(2) COM(1999) 457 final.

(2002/C 301 E/178)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1514/02

by Cristiana Muscardini (UEN) to the Commission

(29 May 2002)

Subject: Illegal trafficking in live animals

Reports have recently appeared in the Italian press citing figures relating to the market in environmental
crime, contained in a report, itself published only very recently, produced by the LAV (Anti-Vivisection
League) and sponsored by the Legambiente (League for the Environment) organisation. These figures are
extremely disturbing: EUR 2 582 million for waste management activities, EUR 1 785 million for
irregularities in the construction sector, EUR 155 million for trafficking in works of art and as much as
EUR 2 825 million for the racket in live animals (especially fighting dogs/thoroughbreds intended for illegal
racing).
In addition, the Vicenza and Padua forestry authorities have impounded 500 000 protected
animals slaughtered in eastern European countries.

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Is the Commission aware of these disturbing figures?

Does the Commission not consider that, in the field of environmental crime, the governments of the
Member States and the applicant countries should be enabled to undertake investigations, through their
police forces, into the origins and end-destinations of trafficking of this kind?

Does the Commission not consider that, with a view to the forthcoming (and very welcome) enlargement,
the governments of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe should be urged to supply information on
hunting and dog-fighting practices in their countries and the legislation in place for regulating such
practices?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(11 July 2002)

The Commission has noted the figures published recently by the Anti-Vivisection League and in the 2002
report on the Ecomafia published by Legambiente. These figures confirm the data Legambiente has been
publishing for several years in its annual reports.

It is the responsibility of the Member States and applicant countries to undertake investigations, through
their police forces,
into the origins and final destinations of trafficking of this kind. The framework
decision on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between the Member States,
submitted on the Commission’s initiative on 19 September 2001 and adopted on 13 June 2002, abolishes
the principle of double criminal liability between Member States in environmental crime if offences are
punished in the issuing Member State with a maximum custodial sentence of at least three years.

The Commission is concerned at the increase in environmentally damaging infringements and their effects.
These infringements pose a serious threat to the environment and should be countered by effective,
proportionate and dissuasive sanctions at national level, if necessary criminal penalties, in all the Member
States.

law more effectively, by introducing throughout

For this reason, the Commission presented a proposal for a Directive on the protection of the environment
law on 15 March 2001 (1). Such a Directive should make it possible to apply EC
through criminal
environment
the Community a minimum set of
constituent elements of criminal infringements of environment law in each Member State and providing
for effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions, if necessary criminal penalties, at national level. The
proposal is expressly concerned with environmental legislation on the protection of endangered species. It
had a successful first reading in the plenary session of the European Parliament of 9 April 2002.

This proposal for a Directive could usefully be accompanied by appropriate measures adopted in the
framework of the police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters which is the subject of Title VI of the
Treaty on European Union, notably in relation to the investigation and prosecution of criminal offences, or
to questions of procedure in criminal matters, in accordance with the approach suggested by the European
Parliament in its plenary session of 9 April 2002,
in the opinion which it delivered as part of the
consultation on the draft framework decision on protection of the environment through criminal law.

If adopted before the accession of the applicant countries, the proposed Directive will form part of the
Community acquis and will therefore have to be implemented by the new Member States from the time of
their accession or within the time limits set by the Directive. The Commission is currently gathering the
most reliable data it can find in the Member States and the applicant countries on the existence and scale
of organised environmental crime.

With regard to the prevention of dog-fighting, this is a matter of animal protection which is not covered
by the Treaty and therefore falls exclusively within the competence of the Member States.

(1) Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of the environment

through criminal law, OJ C 180 E, 26.6.2001.