EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Activities seriously damaging environment will soon become a crime across the 27-nation EU, as the bloc's main institutions have agreed on a piece of law harmonising what constitutes a severe environmental offence and obliging national governments to apply criminal penalties to punish them. On Wednesday (21 May), members of the European Parliament are set to give their blessing to a report by German conservative Hartmut Nassauer, which calls for "effective, proportionate and dissuasive" criminal sanctions for number of crimes. The list includes crimes related to the emission of radiation into the air, soil or water; the disposal of waste; the production, storage and transport of nuclear materials; the possession or killing of protected fauna and flora species; the deterioration of a habitat within a protected site; and the manufacture and distribution of ozone-depleting substances. All three EU bodies - the parliament, the European commission and the council, representing member states - have thrown their weight behind the draft law during the so-called first reading, the early stages of legislative process.
