On Wednesday 13 June, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, proposed a more integrated approach to direct the EU's strategy to tackle the proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SALW).
The aim is to retouch the European strategy on the subject, which was adopted in 2005, to bring it into line with the context of "global terrorism".
The text presented targets both civilian and military weaponry as “the legal distinction between civilian and military-grade firearms becomes irrelevant once they are diverted into the illegal circuit”.
The High Representative calls upon a wide range of government agencies, including the police, border guards and armed forces of the member states, to lay greater emphasis on integration to respond to transnational threats.
Five principles are listed as a future basis for the European strategy: unity, cooperation, taking responsibility in the priority regions, moving towards a legal framework for global cooperation based on the fundamental rights and the incorporation of gender and diversity aspects.
The effective implementation of the United Nations action programme on SALW (2001), the only text that sets out an international legal framework, is the priority objective of the new policy sketched out in the communication. It will involve such things as tightening up European standards.
The Council is called upon to make a decision on the referencing of SALW, with a view to increasing their traceability.
The Commission has also announced the creation of a system for the exchange of information between member states on the transfer of civilian weaponry.
Mogherini will publish an impact and effectiveness evaluation of the 2005-2017 strategy on SLAW, which will be used as a basis for more specific proposals.
The text proposed is available at: https://bit.ly/2JGGAjg (Original version in French by Mathieu Solal, intern)