This paper aims to reflect on the challenges faced by the harmonization of legal frameworks as a strategy to globally address transnational organized environmental crime, taking into consideration the difficulties experienced at a regional level, in the EU. The focus will be specifically on the harmonization of sanctions, due to the impact that this issue has on the application of UNTOC (United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime). With this aim, the implementation of Directive 2008/99/EC on the protection of the environment through criminal law is analysed to check the extent to which the harmonization of sanctions was reached five years after the due date for the transposition of the Directive. This paper also highlights that, beyond political will and European criminal competences, harmonization is a matter of legal culture, which renders the challenge even more complex.

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