Paris (AFP)
The Senate with a right-wing majority begins Tuesday the examination of the bill relating to "The European Public Prosecutor's Office and specialized criminal justice", which according to the Keeper of the Seals Nicole Belloubet should help improve the judicial response to environmental damage .
About fifty amendments will be examined in the hemicycle. Senators will vote on March 3 at first reading on the entire text. The bill will then go to the National Assembly.
In addition to strengthening specialized criminal justice, it aims to adapt France's criminal procedure with a view to setting up the European Public Prosecutor's Office in November.
The senators adopted the text in committee with only 16 amendments, all by the rapporteur Philippe Bonnecarrère (centrist), making changes to the margin.
But, for the Syndicate of the magistracy, classified on the left, which was heard by the commission of the Laws of the Senate, it comprises "two parts likely to involve a deep evolution of the criminal law, and which would have deserved more debates" .
The most emblematic aspect aims to improve the judicial response to environmental damage, which is today unanimously considered to be insufficient.
The text provides for the creation in each of the 36 appeal courts of a specialized court, with dedicated magistrates, to deal with attacks such as soil pollution or breaches of the regulations on protected species.
The simplest cases (illegal dumping, infringements of fishing or hunting licenses) will continue to be dealt with by local courts, while the most serious, such as the fire at the Lubrizol factory in Rouen, by the two interregional hubs specialized in Paris and Marseille.
- "Exceptional justice" -
The project also provides for the establishment of a new "legal response", the "ecological judicial agreement", a form of transaction, such as plead guilty, especially for companies recognizing their responsibility.
"It is at the same time a sanction, a setting in conformity and a repair, it is much faster than a criminal procedure", pleads Ms. Belloubet for which it will not be either "a discount justice" , nor of "justice done on the sly".
The PS group will request the referral back to committee of article 8 which contains these provisions, considering that it "has not been completed" and "suffers from inaccuracies". This request received an unfavorable opinion from the committee and is unlikely to be voted by the right-wing senatorial majority.
The same goes for the amendment to delete this article which the Socialists will defend for the same reasons.
The CRCE group with a communist majority has for its part tabled an amendment aiming to delete the "ecological judicial convention", judging that it "creates exceptional justice (...) by liberating the main polluters from a good trial and due form ".
The second important part of the text, more consensual, concerns the adaptation of French criminal procedure to the new judicial authority that is the European Public Prosecutor's Office. Its role will be to investigate and prosecute fraud in the budget of the European Union and other offenses affecting the financial interests of the EU (VAT scams, corruption, embezzlement of public funds ...).
This component constitutes "a good surprise" for Mr. Bonnecarrère who welcomed in committee "a relatively simple and pragmatic device".
The bill also includes several other measures, including the imposition of a new additional penalty for adults who have committed "serious offenses" in public transport. They could be denied access to public transportation for a maximum of three years.
For the rapporteur, "this sentence restricting liberty mainly targets two types of offense, those committed by + wipers + and pickpockets in the RER or the metro".
In committee, senators added guarantees to this new penalty and made it applicable to minors over the age of sixteen, with a maximum duration reduced to one year.
The left will propose to delete it, deeming it "disproportionate and not very operational".
© 2020 AFP