The liberals at the European Parliament have announced that on Wednesday 8 March they submitted a number of amendments to the inter-institutional agreement on the directive for controlling, acquiring and owning weapons, in view of the forthcoming plenary vote.
In a press release, the shadow rapporteur on the text, Dita Charanzová (ALDE, Czech Republic), exclaimed that, “The European Parliament has abandoned its position too easily: the directive is now missing it main objective, that of supporting the fight against terrorism”. Her office confirmed to us that, “There are several points with which we are not satisfied – such as the lack of clarity and harmonisation of systems for neutralising weapons, the lack of limit on online sales, as well as the new categories of firearms proposed”.
The announcement does not come as any surprise. Ms Charanzová had already expressed her opposition at the time of the internal market and consumer protection committee (IMCO) vote. She judged that it was too restrictive to ban certain neutralised weapons. The divisions that appeared during the vote were more related to nationality than to the different political groups and MEPs from Central and Eastern Europe were for the most part, opposed to the text or abstained on it (see EUROPE 11712).
The amendments submitted and consulted by Europe are 11 pages long. The majority of them seek to re-establish the text that had been decided during the vote preceding the inter-institutional negotiations (see EUROPE 11593). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)