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ECOCIDE In France, the new law was put into practice no later than the acceptance of the bill. The famous Gréziew-La-Varenne was the first case criminal proceeding within the scope of the ecocide legislation. The case erupted in 2019 when several residents of the Tupinier commune in the Grézieula-Varenne district discovered they were living on land contaminated with hydrocarbons and heavy metals. In April 2023, the Lyon court ruled that the sellers and notaries had failed to inform successive buyers of the property in question that the house was built on the site of a former industrial laundry, whose soil was contaminated with chemicals and carcinogens. The chlorinated products came from emissions from the Mercier industrial laundry. The company had already been ordered by the Lyon Court of Appeal in the mid-1980s to pay damages to a couple from the same neighbourhood for material and physical injuries after a dubious evacuation. In the recent case, the court ordered the daughter of the original owner of the laundry company and the notaries to reimburse the first buyers of the house, who themselves will have to repay the buyer of 2019. The defendants are ordered to pay €69,519 for material and moral damages. Lyon’s Court of Appeal ordered the seller and the two notaries involved in the purchase to pay nearly €900,000 to the owners to cover the cost of cleaning the site and compensation for anxiety and inability to enjoy their property. The Grezieu-La-Varenne real estate case was the subject of six other civil proceedings and is the first case of ecocide based on the newly adopted French law.“ Belgium is also at the forefront of promoting ecocide. The Green Party submitted a proposal to Parliament in July 2020 to criminalise ecocide at the national and international levels.°* It was the first European state to speak out in favour of ecocide in December 2020 at the meeting of the States Parties to the International Criminal Court. In her speech, the Foreign Minister at the time, Sophie Wilmés, expressed Belgium's support: “I would like to take this opportunity to draw the attention of States Parties to the tragedy of serious environmental crimes. Belgium considers that it would be useful to examine the possibility of including the crimes known as ecocide in the Rome Statute in the framework of the work of our next sessions." 58 Le Goff, Par Aimée: Ecocide a Grézieu-la-Varenne: le tribunal de Lyon annule les ventes initiales. 8 April 2023 Available at: https://www.lyoncapitale.fr/actualite/ecocide-agrezieu-la-varenne-le-tribunal-de-lyon-annule-les-ventes-initiales. 54 DOC 55 1429/001 Proposition de résolution visant à inclure le crime d’écocide dans le Statut de Rome de la Cour pénale internationale et le droit pénal belge 8 July 2020. 55 [Intervention enregistrée de Mme. la Vice-Première Ministre et Ministre des Affaires étrangères Sophie Wilmès à l'occasion du Débat général de la 19è session de l’Assemblée des Etats parties au Statut de Rome de la Cour pénale internationale pp. 1-4. 174
