Foreign
THE European Commission wants to keep better track of firearms imported into the European Union and crack down on illegal weapons with updated rules announced on Thursday.
“Currently, there are too many criminals who have a deadly weapon in their hands,” EU Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said in Brussels.”
An estimated 35 million illicit firearms were circulating in the EU and 630,000 guns were listed as missing, according to the commission.
Johansson stressed the lack of reliable data on the issue.
“When it comes to the illegal firearms monitoring, we have a big absence of proper figures,” she said.
Under the proposed rules, national authorities must check if an applicant had been refused permission in another EU member state.
A refusal notice must also be shared with other members.
The commission also wanted an EU electronic licensing system to replace paper-based national systems for firearms manufacturers and dealers to apply for import and export authorisation.
An end-user certificate was to be included for more dangerous firearms to ensure the purchaser was the ultimate recipient of the weapon and was not transferring final ownership to another person.
Stricter technical standards were too introduced for non-lethal weapons that fire blank ammunition or tear gas to prevent their conversion into lethal weapons.
Tighter import rules were to also apply to semi-finished firearms to reduce the threat of home-made guns, Johansson said, citing the weapons used in the terrorist attacks in Paris 2015.
The European Parliament and the 27 EU member states must now approve the updated rules. (dpa/NAN)
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Tags: European Commission Ylva Johansson
