Съобразяването на наказателно-правните стандарти на ЕС в областта на околната среда по българския НК
Conformity of European Union Criminal Law standards in the area of environment protection with the relevant Bulgarian Penal Code provisions

Summary/Abstract: CRIMINAL LAW // The Law on the Amendment and Supplementation of the Bulgarian Penal Code2011 was adopted in April 2011. One of its major objectives is the transposition in the Bulgarian national legislation of EU Criminal law standards concerning environment protection. The aim of the present research paper is to investigate whether and to what extent this major objective of the Bulgarian law in question has been fulfilled. The conclusions reached in this paper are based on the outlining, classification, and analysis of EU Criminal law standards in that area in terms of the consistency of the relevant Bulgarian Penal Code provisions with the former. The structure of the analysis is predicated on the circumstance that the area in question contains two EU Criminal law frameworks. In principle they could be classified as special and general legal frameworks. The special legal framework relates to the prevention of pollution of maritime areas caused by ships. It includes principles in the policy of the EU not only in the area of environment protection but also in the area of transportation. The general legal framework is dedicated to environment protection in general by means of criminal law. Both legal frameworks are to be incorporated in the Law on the Amendment and Supplementation of the Bulgarian Penal Code described above. At the same time the present paper makes recommendations for the improvement of both EU Criminal law and Bulgarian Criminal law in the area in question whenever it is deemed necessary to do so. The paper reaches the conclusion that Bulgaria has not yet complied with all standards in the discussed area. Special attention is paid to the fact that unless Bulgaria takes all the necessary measures for complete and correct incorporation of the current EU Criminal law framework in the area of environment protection, it may encounter the enforced implementation and application of the said standards by competent EU institutions. Besides, the analysis in the research paper leads to the conclusion that the improvement of Bulgarian legislation has to be carried out along with Bulgaria’s pro-active participation in the process of drafting and adoption of new EU legislation for adequate criminal law protection of the environment in general. Of course, the improved legislation has to comply in particular with an enhanced legal regime with regard to the prevention of pollution caused by ships.

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