SWEAP Presented at Europol Waste and Pollution Crime Conference

Europol’s first ever conference on Waste and Pollution Crimes, held 30 and 31 October 2023, targeted heads of specialised criminal investigation services. The meeting focused on two objectives: 1. to add more partners to the fight against waste & pollution crimes and 2. support the creation of national focal points and specialised units.

Current and future legal frameworks were presented, including the revision of the Environmental Crime Directive, as well as main EU and international initiatives including the work by the UNODC and Interpol.

The LIFE SWEAP project, represented by Nancy Isarin, presented the overall aims and work of SWEAP and in more detail the collection of inspection data on shipments of waste via the SWEAP App. This tool was warmly welcomed by the participants and showed interest in its functionalities. The discussion centered around the continued use of the app once the SWEAP project has come to a close in June 2024 and how this tool can be used for other types of environmental crime, including illegal logging.

During its closing session, Mr. Georgios Raskos, Head of Europol Organised Crime Unit – European
Serious Organised Crime Centre said that regardless of the release of the priority of environmental crime a few years ago, most important challenges still stand, namely: the lack of the implementation of international cooperation tools in national protocols; the lack of harmonization of national legal frameworks; and above all, the lack of national focal points and well dimensioned and specialized units in national competent agencies. Futher, financial investigations need to be allocated on a regular basis next to the core case in order to implement the “follow the money” principle, as well as proceeding with assets recovery procedures and proper disruption of the criminal activities of the networks. And, last but not least, cooperation with civil and private sector that are recurrent on other criminal areas such as cyber-crime and counterterrorism, may be implemented in environmental crimes as well.