On Monday morning, 40 climate activists from the environmental movement Extinction Rebellion (XR) blocked the entrance of the European Commission, ten of whom superglued themselves to the entrance doors of the Berlayment building.
The action started at 08:00 and continued for at least half an hour. “Businesses and lobbyists must be called by name, held accountable and prosecuted for their actions,” said XR spokesperson Aktis in a press release.
The organisation demands that an ecocide law is introduced at both a national and European level, criminalising the process of environmental destruction. Some countries, such as Ukraine, Georgia, Vietnam and Moldova, already have ecocide laws in place.
This would require an extension of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which prosecutes individuals for four kinds of crime: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression. Ecocide should be included as the fifth international crime, the organisation pleads.
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The activists also point out that the European Union is currently updating its legislation on environmental crimes, for the first time since 2008, and that XR regrets that the Commission’s proposal does not mention ecocide.
European leaders will meet later this week and the security services of the European Commission and the police are on the scene.
