Candidates for the European Parliament who support End Ecocide initiative

Dear MEP candidate,

You might have heard about the European Citizens’ Initiative End Ecocide in Europe, aimed at establishing a criminal liability for those responsible for what we call ecocide: the extensive damage or destruction of ecosystems. Over 135,000 EU citizens have signed this initiative, demonstrating public support all over Europe.

As candidate for the European Parliament, we hope that you take this public demand seriously and therefore invite you to consider our proposal and share your view with us. Europeans are right now considering who they should vote for in the collections – we can help you reach out to a few of those citizens who share our deep concerns about our natural environment.

It can hardly have escaped the attention of anyone that the state of the Earth is far from good. Many people are concerned and feel a great sense of urgency. Humanity is facing a challenge of startling environmental degradation which needs to be addressed with all possible means, including legal measures. Suitable legal institutions are missing to protect nature in the short term and ourselves in the long run.

Citizens from all over Europe realise this and demand a change: A law to protect the ecosystems we all depend on for life, as well as a court to try those destroying the basis of life on earth.
End Ecocide in Europe is an entirely volunteers-led European Citizens’ Initiative. As of today, over 130,228 EU citizens have supported our proposal. As you might know, the requirements for a signature to be deemed valid are rather extensive. In most member states an ID or passport number, and/or the signatory’s birth date are required, resulting in a loss of over 50% of the signatures (as demonstrated by our website statistics, according to which less than 44% of those clicking on “Vote now” actually sign). Given those circumstances and our entirely volunteers and citizens’ nature (without any organization behind), we have failed the 1 million threshold for the European Citizens’ Initiative. Nevertheless, we have raised awareness and sparked a lot of interest in the concept of ecocide. That’s why we will hand in an ordinary petition to the European Parliament in the autumn, to give you and your future colleagues an opportunity to learn more about the criminal law approach to protecting our environment.

Furthermore, we have recently joined forces with other expert organisations, representing for example prosecutors and legislators, as well as former ministers of the environment, to publish the Charter of Brussels calling for the establishment of a European and an International Criminal Court of the Environment and Health. This court is needed to ensure accountability and liability for crimes of extensive destruction of ecosystems.

You aspire to represent us as citizens in the European Parliament – so we ask you to engage with the citizens’ concern to ensure environmental justice.

Do you support the initiative to establish a European Ecocide Directive which would make it illegal to commit ecocide on EU territory, as well as outside the EU by European companies or individuals, as well as financed by EU banks, accompanied by an import ban for any goods or services resulting from ecocide into the EU?

Do you support the initiative to establish a European and an International Criminal Court of the Environment and Health?

Please let us know your answers or comments on these questions. We will publish them on our
website to help guide citizens in the choices they will make in May.