Decree 231, more crimes and more sanctions for environmental offences

The definitive green light (with 137 yes, 85 no and three abstentions) in the Chamber of Deputies to the law converting the Earth of Fires Decree Law, which contains a real reform of environmental offences. In the Chamber it was once again wall-to-wall between the majority and the opposition on a justice-related issue, with Roberto Giachetti of Italia Viva contesting the very assumptions of necessity and urgency of the intervention and then underlining how 'with the umpteenth punishment increases, it risks even being counterproductive to the age-old problem of toxic waste'.

The majority's interpretation is quite different, with Pino Bicchielli (Forza Italia), president of the parliamentary enquiry commission on the hydrogeological and seismic risk: 'The new rules transform certain violations into crimes with prison sentences, excluding oblation. The aim is to combat the ecomafias and protect citizens from degradation that threatens their safety and health. The decree also provides for the administrative liability of entities and the seizure of vehicles used for illegal transport'.

In terms of content, the responsibility of companies for environmental crimes is extended and tightened. With a series of interventions on decree 231 of 2001, in fact, the Terra dei fuochi decree law modifies both the weight of penalties and the title of liability. With regard to the latter, in fact, the measure provides that in cases of offences of abandonment of waste, non-hazardous and hazardous waste, unauthorised waste management and illegal waste shipment punishable on the grounds of guilt, the same penalties apply as for conduct punishable on the grounds of guilt, reduced by between one third and two thirds.

The changes on the side ofinterdictionary sanctions are also significant. In fact, it establishes their applicability for a duration of no more than six months for offences of lack of authorisation for the discharge of industrial waters containing hazardous substances; exceeding the limit values for the discharge of hazardous waters; unauthorised discharge into the soil, subsoil and underground waters and of intentional and culpable pollution.

Duration of not more than one year in cases of conviction for the offences of unauthorised waste management, illegal combustion of waste and illegal shipment of waste. The sanction of definitive disqualification from exercising the activity is applied when the entity or one of its organisational units is permanently used for the sole or prevalent purpose of enabling or facilitating the commission of the offences of environmental pollution, environmental disaster, trafficking in and abandonment of highly radioactive material and activities organised for the illegal trafficking of waste, unauthorised waste management activities, illegal combustion of waste and illegal shipment of waste and malicious pollution.