Directive 2008/51 - Amendment of Council Directive 91/477/EEC on control of the acquisition and possession of weapons - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 179/5

Directive 91/477/EEC (3) established an accompanying measure for the internal market. It creates a balance between on the one hand the undertaking to ensure a certain freedom of movement for some firearms within the Community, and on the other the need to control this freedom using security guarantees suited to this type of product.

In accordance with Council Decision 2001/748/EC of 16 October 2001 concerning the signing on behalf of the European Community of the United Nations Protocol on the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, their parts, components and ammunition, annexed to the Convention against transnational organised crime (4), the Commission signed that Protocol (hereinafter referred to as the Protocol) on behalf of the Community on 16 January 2002.

The accession of the Community to the Protocol requires amendments to certain provisions of Directive 91/477/EEC. Indeed, it is important to ensure the coherent, effective and rapid application of the international commitments affecting that Directive. Furthermore, it is necessary to take the opportunity of this revision in order to improve that Directive by addressing certain issues, in particular those that were identified in the report of the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council of 15 December 2000 on the implementation of Directive 91/477/EEC.

Police intelligence evidence shows an increase in the use of converted weapons within the Community. It is therefore essential to ensure that such convertible weapons are brought within the definition of a firearm for the purposes of Directive 91/477/EEC.

Firearms, their parts and ammunition, when imported from third countries, are subject to Community legislation and, accordingly, to the requirements of Directive 91/477/EEC.

The notions of illicit manufacturing and trafficking of firearms, their parts and ammunition, as well as the notion of tracing, should therefore be defined for the purposes of Directive 91/477/EEC.

Furthermore, the Protocol establishes an obligation to mark weapons at the time of manufacture and at the time of transfer from government stocks to permanent civilian use, whereas Directive 91/477/EEC refers only indirectly to the marking obligation. In order to facilitate the tracing of weapons, it is necessary to use alphanumeric codes and to include in the marking the year of manufacture of the weapon (if not part of the serial number). The Convention of 1 July 1969 on Reciprocal Recognition of Proofmarks on Small Arms should, to the greatest extent possible, be used as a reference for the marking system in the Community as a whole.

Moreover, while the Protocol provides that the period during which registers containing information on weapons are to be kept must be increased to at least 10 years, it is necessary, in view of the dangerous nature and durability of weapons, to extend this period up to a minimum of 20 years in order to allow the proper tracing of firearms. It is also necessary that Member States keep a computerised data-filing system, either a centralised system or a...