European gun rules to be tightened

RENATA GOLDIROVA

29.11.2007 @ 09:18 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – The 27-nation EU is set to tighten existing rules on the acquisition and possession of firearms, an issue that has come to the fore again in Europe after a recent shooting at a Finnish school.

Later on Thursday (29 November), the European Parliament is expected to give its blessing to a report drafted by German green MEP Gisela Kallenbach - a move that would also open the door to an overall EU agreement on the issue.

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The text is a compromise reached between all three EU institutions - the parliament, the commission and the council representing the member states - after 18 months of negotiations.

According to Ms Kallenbach, the draft law is likely to win a "large majority" of votes, as all major political groups, namely the centre-right, the socialists, the liberals, the leftist GUE and the greens, have pledged to back the compromise text.

The vote comes after a student at a Finnish school shot dead eight people earlier this month, while German police recently claimed to have foiled a plot by some students to carry out a massacre at a school near Cologne in the west of Germany.

Under the EU deal, a firearm may be purchased and owned only by someone who is at least 18 years old and holds a permit.

The only exception will be for hunters and sport shooters. They may possess a firearm, if under supervision of a licensed adult.

In addition, all weapons as well as packages of ammunition will have to be marked by an alphanumeric symbol in order to facilitate their traceability.

Each member state will be obliged to set up a computerised database of firearms, including information about their manufacturer, former and current owners, their trade or repair. The data must be kept by authorities for at least 20 years.

Weapon dealers and brokers will also face tougher restrictions under the proposal.

But Ms Kallenbach failed to push through the idea of "purely and simply forbidding the acquisition of firearms through distance communication, especially internet".

According to the German MEP, the draft law generally "meets the balance between the internal market rules and certain safety concerns", as it provides for "tough action to control the source of illegal firearms, without inconveniencing too much legal users of weapons, including hunters and sport shooters".

However, it is these two groups - hunters and sport shooters, especially from Austria and France - who have criticised the deal, describing it as "over-bureaucratic".

But Ms Kallenbach argues that the changes to the currently applied 1991 rules on firearms are necessary for two main reasons - the EU internal market has grown to 27 nations since 1991 and the rules need to be brought into line with a UN protocol on firearms.

Currently, there are 46 firearms per 100 people in Finland, 36 in Cyprus and 32 in Sweden, according to the a Geneva-based NGO Small Arms Survey.

At the bottom of the same scale is Poland with one weapon per 100 people, the Netherlands (3) and Estonia together with Ireland (9).

If adopted, the new EU-wide rules will come into force in January 2008, with the governments having time until 2010 to translate them into the national law books.