5.4.2. Application of PD 75/2020 in Environmental Crimes

As already mentioned, PD 75/2020 does not specifically regulate the use of surveillance systems for the prevention and repression of environmental crime, however, its purpose, as described in Article 3, includes a large number of environmental offences, referring to the relevant provisions of the Criminal Code.

In particular, the scope of PD 75/2020 encompasses:


Therefore, PD 75/2020 offers, to a large extent, the possibility of using modern remote sensing technologies for environmental protection, since its scope primarily involves the protection of public environmental goods, including public forests, coastal and riparian zones, rivers, large lakes, sea, as well as the protection of all forest and reforestable ecosystems from arson. Furthermore, such technologies can be used both for preventive and for repressive protection of the above areas and elements (Article 3a).

## *5.5. Concluding Remarks for Greek Legislation and Future Perspectives in Environmental Law*

Although the regulatory framework of PD 75/2020 includes many and significant offences of environmental relevance in its scope, it is found to be inadequate for facing emerging legal issues from the use of remote sensing technologies for environmental monitoring and environmental law enforcement. This is because it not only addresses certain environmental offences but also addresses them in a fragmentary manner. From this point, it even fails to regulate effectively issues related exclusively to environmental crime. It is a telling sign that Article 4 does not designate the competent environmental protection authorities as data controllers. Similarly, the provisions of Article 10 on information to the data subjects fail to take into account and to respond to the particularity of supervision of broad and freely accessible areas such as forest and coastal zones. In addition to this, the scope of PD 75/2020 is limited to the use of remote sensing technologies in public spaces, leaving private environmental goods (e.g., private forests, lakes, private coastal areas) unprotected.

Thus, it is recommended that a special legislative and regulatory framework is established, which will adjust the technical features offered by modern remote sensing technologies not only to the preventive and repressive treatment of environmental crime in its whole but also to their use in environmental monitoring and all aspects of environmental law enforcement. Lessons learned from the regulatory framework of PD 75/2020 for the protection of the infringed human rights, in accordance with the principle of proportionality, which calls for a special weighting based on the particular features of each environmental good, the special enhanced constitutional protection of forest ecosystems, and human rights' risks emerging from the use of technical means for environmental surveillance, should be taken into account, when forming such a special framework.

## **6. Conclusions**

Remote sensing technologies provide tools for gathering data, which are extremely useful for ensuring a high level of environmental protection and the improvement of the quality of the environment. However, the same time they raise new difficult challenges,

such as their interference with the rights of privacy and personal data, which are also protected fundamental rights.

It stems from existing legislation and case law interpretation that remote sensing technologies in the European Union can be used for environmental purposes, especially for combatting serious environmental crime, however with sufficient guarantees for the effective protection of privacy and personal data, provided that no other less restrictive means exist.

The case study of Greece clearly shows that despite recent developments in the field of surveillance systems' legislation, there is still a gap in special legislative and regulatory framework which will envisage the lawful use of remote sensing technologies in the environmental sector.

However, the path has been opened and the great demand for a wider use of remote sensing technologies for supporting environmental law enforcement, for combatting environmental crime and for collecting environmental monitoring data will inevitably lead to a consistent regulatory framework in European and national level.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, M.M. and E.-A.M.; Funding acquisition, M.M., A.P., E.- A.M. and L.M.; Investigation, M.M. and A.P.; Project administration, E.-A.M.; Supervision, E.-A.M. and L.M.; Writing—original draft, M.M. and A.P.; Writing—review & editing, M.M., A.P., E.-A.M. and L.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research is co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund-ESF) through the Operational Programme "Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning 2014-2020" in the context of the project "Legal issues derived from the use of monitoring and earth observation technologies to ensure environmental compliance in the Hellenic legal order-HELLASNOMOSAT" (grant number MIS 5047355).

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
