The first round of interinstitutional talks on the draft firearms directive, on Tuesday 27 September were productive, according to several institutional sources contacted on Wednesday 28 September. The Council and the European Parliament determined which points fell within the technical sphere and which the political.
The negotiators from the two European institutions agreed a number of eminently political points: - the marking of firearms and their constituent parts; - putting in place a data filing system to simplify information exchange between member states; - the authorisation to possess firearms, including the issue of medical examinations (see EUROPE 11593); - definitively rendering firearms inoperable; - the categorisation of semi-automatic weapons; - the definition of “collector”; - acoustic weapons.
The next negotiating session will be on Friday morning 30 September and will be devoted to technical issues. Talks on the technical strand should conclude on Monday 17 October but the Slovak Presidency has still to confirm the date.
The European Commission proposal presented in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks of November 2015 (see EUROPE 11433) have been radically altered by the Council (see EUROPE 11570) and the European Parliament (see EUROPE 11593). Nonetheless, several sources close to the matter have told EUROPE that the negotiations were likely to advance rapidly. Some are hopeful of an interinstitutional agreement before the end of the year. ( Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)