The European Environmental Law Forum Conference "Sustainable Management of Natural Resources – Legal Approaches and Instruments" was held in Copenhagen between 30 August and 1 September 2017. The event was organized by the European Environmental Law Forum (EELF), the Nordic Environmental Law, Governance & Science Network (NELN+), the University of Copenhagen (Faculty of Science) and Aarhus University (School of Law).
Sustainable management of natural resources such as water, biodiversity and air remains a key concern at EU as well as national level. However, despite the adoption of several EU directives, the environmental objectives have not been met yet. The Copenhagen conference, now at its 5th edition, was dedicated to the role of different available legal approaches and instruments, as well as to their practical inconsisten-cies, with a focus on seeking possible improved solutions to ensure sustainable management of natural resources.
Magdalena Roibu, PhD, a university lecturer with the University of Timisoara and a senior attorney at law in Schoenherr Romania's white collar crime practice, was a speaker to this conference, critically analyz-ing some sensitive aspects of the manner in which the local legislation has transposed certain European legal provisions in the area of environmental law, particularly those referring to the environment protec-tion and sanctioning of environmental offenses by criminal law.
Apparently, by adopting Law no. 101/2011 on the prevention and criminal sanctioning of environmental offenses, Romania has efficiently transposed Directive 2008/99/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of the environment through criminal law. However, the practical implementation of this law on a national level raises a series of issues, which were addressed by Magdalena Roibu in her presentation. Examples include the overlapping and conflict between the Romanian legal provisions in the field of environmental protection, the fact that the proportionality principle is disregarded (with certain of-fenses under Law no. 101 being sanctioned more severely than counterpart crimes in the Penal Code), or the fact that national agencies usually tend to rather inflict civil fines on offenders, instead of criminal sanctions, even in the case of severe breaches of environmental legislation.
The European Environmental Law Forum is a non-profit initiative of environmental law scholars and prac-titioners from across Europe aiming to support intellectual exchange on the development and implemen-tation of international, European and national environmental law in Europe. The website of the conference is available at the following link:
http://law.au.dk/forskning/konferencer/eelf-conference Magdalena Roibu | senior attorney at law (bucharest)
T: +40 21 319 67 90 | E: m.roibu@schoenherr.eu
Daniela Badoi | pr & corporate communications manager (bucharest)
T: +40 733 730 115 | E: d.badoi@schoenherr.eu
