Since its inception in 2013, the EFFACE project has researched many different aspects of environmental crime. This report, ‘Evaluation of the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities (SWOT) associated with EU efforts to combat environmental crime,’ brings together insights of the current approach of the EU and its Member States in combatting environmental crime, as a basis to later develop policy recommendations. The project identified nine relevant dimensions of the EU's current approach towards combatting environmental crime:

The nine dimensions identified are:

1. Data and information management (relevant for Member State and the EU level)
2. Further harmonisation of substantive environmental criminal law at EU level (excluding sanctions)
3. System of sanctions (administrative vs. criminal vs. civil proceedings (relevant for Member States/EU level)
4. Functioning of enforcement institutions and cooperation between them (relevant for Member States/EU level)
5. Trust-based and cooperation-based approaches: environmental crime victims and civil society
6. External dimension of environmental crime – what can EU do  (EU only)
7. Use of environmental liability (relevant for Member States/EU level)
8. Organised environmental crime
9. Corporate responsibility and liability in relation to environmental crime

Each theme is evaluated in a consistent way; the governance levels analysed include that of the Member States, the EU and the international level. In addition, the aspects above interact with each other; therefore the authors stress the importance of moving forward with policy recommendations that consider these different aspects as a whole and not in isolation. The final recommendations of EFFACE will build on the SWOT analysis.