2021-03-04
The SEPRONA Headquarters currently holds the presidency of the European Network of Experts in Environmental Crime Investigation (EnviCrimeNet). At the last General Assembly of the Network, held in Madrid on 2-4/03/2020 with the support of the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITERD), it was agreed, among other things, to extend the Spanish presidency of the Network for 2-3 years.

To this end, a LIFE+ Project was developed between the Guardia Civil-SEPRONA and TRAGSATEC, which was presented to the European Commission (DG-ENVI) in September 2020 and approved three months later. This project will provide financial resources to the EnviCrimeNet Network for the development of its activities over the next two years.

 

This project is a reality thanks to the support and coordination of the public company TRAGSATEC under the auspices of the TIFIES PLAN; in which the Guardia Civil-SEPRONA is the Technical Director and has as direct beneficiaries law enforcement bodies and agencies from Germany (BKA and ZKA), Italy (Carabinieri), Holland (Environmental Police), Belgium (Environmental Police), Austria (Police) and the Slovak Republic (Ministry of the Interior). It is also supported by Europol and MITERD.

The LIFE+ SATEC project will support the actions of EnviCrimeNet in various aspects, consolidating EnviCrimeNet as a strategic reference network at EU level. In addition to Europol; CEPOL and the European Networks specialised in the prosecution of illegal activities against the environment such as ENPE (Network of Environmental Prosecutors), IMPEL (Network of competent authorities in the field of inspection of illegal activities against the environment) or EUFJE (Forum of Environmental Judges), will participate in the activities of the project offering an overview of the integrity of the environmental compliance chain.

Another aspect to highlight will be the use of this project to support EnviCrimeNet as a platform for the exchange of actions with other networks worldwide. Thus, the involvement of the Jaguar Network between the EU and Latin America, as well as the proposal for the creation of similar structures between the EU and African countries, where MITERD plays an essential role in bringing together actions of the ECOGUARDAS program as a facilitator of this exchange and a starting point for this initiative in Africa, are of particular relevance in the activities proposed.

The LIFE+ SATEC project will also enable the creation of a European Centre of Excellence, facilitating criminal investigation through improvements in the training of agents. In the regulatory framework, it will provide the Union’s institutions with advice from a police perspective on legislative initiatives with an impact on the preservation of the environment. In addition, it will reinforce joint action by different countries around the world to combat criminal activity in areas such as irregular waste management and illegal waste trafficking, species trafficking, trafficking in plant protection products, web-based research, etc.

The project is endowed with a total of 726,000 euros.