According to several sources, at the latest inter-institutional meeting on the revision of the firearms directive on Monday evening 5 December, Security Union Commissioner Julian King personally put pressure on negotiators in order to have certain assault weapons – the AK 47 and the AR 15 – banned.
The commissioner, whose presence at the negotiating table had not been announced, apparently told the Council informally that, if the Commission did not get its way, the College of Commissioners would not adopt the agreement reached between the joint legislators. That would have meant that, instead of adoption by qualified majority, a unanimous vote – by its very nature more difficult to achieve – would be required in the Council of the EU.
The issue was complex: banning certain assault weapons raises the heckles of certain member states and MEPs fearful of affecting hunters and sports shooters who currently legally possess semi-automatic weapons. It would appear, however, that the Commission prevailed on this issue, as the internal market and industry spokesperson Lucia Caudet announced at the daily press briefing on Tuesday 6 December.
Many issues remained pending ahead of the inter-institutional meeting (see EUROPE 11681) and, not surprisingly, no formal agreement was reached – despite the seven hours of negotiations which lasted long into the night – merely an agreement in principle on the key questions, as Parliament rapporteur Vicky Ford (ECR, UK) said the following day.
On the basis of that agreement, the Slovak Presidency of the Council indicated that would try to table a consolidated text at the meeting of the committee of permanent representatives (Coreper) on Wednesday 7 December. Some observers fear that this deadline will be too tight.
Stormy debate and convoluted compromises. It was clear that negotiations between the Commission and Ford would be difficult right from the start with King making a ban on assault weapons the be all and end all of the talks, while the rapporteur wanted to focus on areas where there was more agreement.
Three major issues were discussed: banning certain semi-automatic weapons, medical examinations and classification of deactivated arms. The compromises reached required more than a little creativity. For example, on banning semi-automatic weapons, the joint legislators reached an agreement full of qualifications: semi-automatic weapons that can fire no more than 20 shots will be authorised as long as a magazine of more than twenty bullets is not inserted. A safeguard was added in a recital: this states that any owner in possession of a magazine of more than 20 bullets and, at the same time, a 20-shot semi-automatic weapon will lose the permit for that weapon, even though the magazine is not inserted in the weapon.
The joint legislators then discussed at length the classification of deactivated weapons. Ford did not want these arms classified but the Commission was firmly opposed to this view. Ultimately, the Commission went for making deactivated weapons subject to declaration (category C). As for deactivation methods, the member states will be required to submit their regulatory frameworks to the Commission within two months of the directive’s coming into effect. It will then be for the Commission, under the comitology procedure, to determine whether the national regulatory frameworks meet the level of security demanded by European law.
Lastly, medical examinations are to be maintained but the member states will be free to decide on exact arrangements. Examinations must, nonetheless, be carried out regularly or continuously.
The European Commission wants to progress as quickly as possible towards a political agreement, particularly as MEPs are under severe pressure from the hunting and sports shooting lobbies, while at the same time not compromising the spirit of the initiative and ensuring greater safety with the banning of the most dangerous weapons. This was always going to be particularly difficult with a Council under a Slovak presidency and a rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs who are both conservative on this issue and come to Eastern European countries (Robert Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, EPP, Poland; Dita Charanzova, ALDE, Czech Republic; Jiri Mastalka, GUE/NGL, Czech Republic). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)