Criminal offences
Article 5a
1
Member States shall ensure that infringements within the meaning of Articles 4 and 5 are regarded as criminal offences.
2
Paragraph 1 shall not apply to minor cases, where the act committed does not cause deterioration in the quality of water.
3
Repeated minor cases that do not individually but in conjunction result in deterioration in the quality of water shall be regarded as a criminal offence, if committed with intent, recklessly or with serious negligence.
Inserted by Directive 2009/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 amending Directive 2005/35/EC on ship-source pollution and on the introduction of penalties for infringements (Text with EEA relevance).