Meeting of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer protecion in the EP in Brussels, on the Control of the acquisition and possession of weapons (Firearms Directive). Extracts from the presentation by Pierre DELSAUX, Deputy Director General DG GROW and statements by Evelyne GEBHARDT (S&D, DE), Daniel DALTON (ECR, UK), Dita CHARANZOVA (ALDE, CZ) and Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE).

Brussels

Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

meeting

fight against terrorism (T)

CHARANZOVÁ, Dita (Renew, CZ)

DALTON, Daniel (ECR, UK)

GEBHARDT, Evelyne (S&D, DE)

firearms directive (T)

SCHWAB, Andreas (EPP, DE)

Control of the acquisition and possession of weapons (Firearms Directive): extracts from the presentation by the Commission

SOUNDBITE (English), Pierre DELSAUX, Deputy Director Geberal DG GROW, <p>We do not aim at banning all semi-automatic weapons for use by civilians. With regard to semi-automatic firearms, we only propose to prohibit two types of arms, which have been identified as potentially dangerous. First of all, automatic firearms which have been converted into semi-automatic, and which ofcourse could be recovered into automatic."</p>

SOUNDBITE (English), Pierre DELSAUX, Deputy Director General DG GROW, the recent terrorist attacks have confirmed that certain de-activated firearms are actually re-activated and used by the terrorists. So the Commission regulation on de-activation which ha been adopted on the 18 of November has introduced stricter criteria, which will considerably limit the risk of re-activation. but this risk cannot be totally excluded. And that's why that in the proposal that we submit, we propose to prohibit the acquisition of the most dangerous firearms even after de-activation. This concerns the so-called A category. To be very clear, an automatic Kalshnikov which has been de-activated will now be covered by the directive.

SOUNDBITE (English), Pierre DELSAUX, Deputy Director General DG GROW, My colleague actually made the experience, and it took him 5 minutes to find and not buy, but he could have bought it, to find a simple kit to transform a semi-automatic arm into a fully automatic one. Or to buy components for Kalashnikov. We consider that the risk to citizens is too important. So basically what we propose is to prohibit the acquisition of firearms on internet for private persons.

SOUNDBITE (English), Pierre DELSAUX, Deputy Director General DG GROW, The recent terrorist attacks have demonstrated the importance of exchange of information between Member States concerning the authorisations granted to private persons and the main characteristics of each firearm. For the moment this information is only available at national level.

SOUNDBITE (German), Evelyne GEBHARDT (S&amp;D, DE), When you talked about the exchange of information between Member States this was a very lively discussion back in 2008 when we conducted that last revision. Member States were most reticent to move in that direction. Do you think that in the current situation, Member States will show a little more understanding?

SOUNDBITE (English), Daniel DALTON (ECR, UK), With regards to the ban on de-activated weapons, now there are hundreds and thousands of these in circulation, now records exist. If you ban them overnight, aren't you just going to drive them all underground and create more illegal firearms, because people will have to get rid of them?

SOUNDBITE (English), Dita CHARANZOV&#193; (ALDE, CZ), As how to best protect collective security, but while also respecting the liberties of our individual citizens, and in this context I would like to ask the Commission to be please clear and specific on the potential ban on semi-automatic weapons. You have touched upon this issue, but for instance the weapons in the category of sport and hunting are they going to be touched by your proposal?

SOUNDBITE (German), Andreas SCHWAB (EPP, DE), <p>That's why it's important that the European Commission clarifies today what is the intention of this proposal, what happens for normal hunters and sportsmarks people that have acquired their weapons legally? What these proposals mean for them? I think we need that spelled out to set at rest many of the concerns on people's minds.</p>