Report in accordance with Article 21(3) of Regulation (EU) No 258/2012 implementing Article 10 of the United Nations’ Protocol against the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts and components and ammunitionion

Background:

Once they have been legally manufactured, firearms can be used for many years. Without appropriate measures, they can easily be diverted away from the legal market and smuggled illegally from one conflict zone to another, or into organised crime or the hands of terrorists. Their use is therefore a key element of terrorist activities, and more broadly of most criminal activities, which are often characterised by weapons use.

A fully traceable legal arms trade is a condition of the fight against the trafficking of firearms. It calls for close cooperation between the competent authorities at international level. To this end, a Protocol supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (the Firearms Protocol) focuses on preventing the illicit manufacturing and trafficking of firearms, their parts, components and ammunition. In particular, Article 10 seeks to promote, facilitate and strengthen cooperation at global level to eradicate arms trafficking and establish administrative mechanisms that bring firearms manufacturing, marking, imports and exports under effective control.

The European Union’s general policy on military small arms and light weapons is based on the strategy adopted by the European Council in 2005. On civilian firearms, the European Union adopted Directive 91/477/EEC on control of the acquisition and possession of weapons in order to establish common rules on the possession and use of firearms for legitimate civilian purposes within the single market.

The Union therefore also has exclusive competence for the conclusion of international agreements on issues relevant to its internal competence. For that reason, in order to ratify the Firearms Protocol and ensure firearms’ traceability at the EU’s external borders, the Union adopted Regulation (EU) 258/2012.

EUR-Lex: SWD(2017)442: Commission Staff Working Document accompanying the report http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2017:442:FIN

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