Paris (AFP)
No crime of "ecocide" in the French penal code: the National Assembly on Thursday rejected a proposal for socialist law aimed at its recognition, the Senate having refused in spring a text in the same vein.
"Ecocide" is defined in the bill as "any concerted and deliberate action aimed at directly causing widespread, irreversible and irreparable damage to an ecosystem, committed in the knowledge of the consequences". "One of the great causes of the twenty-first century", for the rapporteur PS law Christophe Bouillon.
The custody of the seals Nicole Belloubet pointed a lack of precision in the definition of the crime of ecocide, or the notions "too vague" of "extensive damage, irreversible and irreparable". She also said that the existing legislative arsenal was already punishing "widespread infringement".
This lack of precision, especially the "irreversible" nature of ecosystem damage, was also criticized by the MP UDI-Agir Firmin Le Bodo or LR Jean-Pierre Vigier.
Christophe Bouillon regretted the government's position, which was unfavorable to the text. "On ecocide, you want to stay still," he said.
The MoDem Erwan Balanant, in welcoming the initiative of the rapporteur, called for a "paradigm shift" on environmental law, and to go further than the proposed text, which is only "symbolic in the state ".
"Ecocide can not be the tree that will hide the forest" and we must review the environmental law from top to bottom, he said.
Most speakers emphasized that the framework should be "transnational".
The LREM deputy Guillaume Vuilletet aligned himself with the position of the Minister of Justice, recalling that "the existing legislative arsenal already allows to sanction", and that the author of a damage to the environment could already be condemned to pay high damages.
"The problem is fundamental, it's the way to approach it that is not the right one," he summarized.
Examined as part of a "parliamentary niche" of the Socialist Group, the text provided for penalties of up to "twenty years of criminal imprisonment" and a fine of € 10 million.
The Assembly had also rejected earlier another bill PS Boris Vallaud that aimed to fight against fuel poverty, and specifically against heat sieve housing.
Same fate for two other texts, one which framed the passage of the theoretical test of the highway code in the high schools, and another which aimed to create a public label to better evaluate the social and environmental responsibility (CSR), companies, a form of "Nutri-Score".
On the other hand, the deputies adopted a proposal of the law Guillaume Garot, intended to fight against the medical desertification. But the measures of "territorial agreement" which should have framed the installation of the liberal doctors were removed in committee, emptying the text of its substance.
© 2019 AFP