EU takes aim at weapons tied to terror attacks

New gun measures are part of the Commission response to the Paris killings.

The European Commission announced Wednesday it will tighten legal restrictions on the types of firearms used by terrorists in a string of attacks across Europe.

The new measures will affect the sale of decommissioned firearms — weapons which have been sold as deactivated but which can be put back into use. Authorities say such weapons may have been used by terrorists in last week’s Paris attacks, and were already involved in a foiled terror attack on a Thalys train in August and reportedly also in the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris in January.

National authorities across the EU currently have different regulations in place under which old weapons, such as Kalashnikov rifles that date back to the Soviet Union but are still in stock in some Eastern European countries, might be sold to individuals after being deactivated.

“The recent terrorist attacks on Europe’s people and values were coordinated across borders, showing that we must work together to resist these threats,” said Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in a statement.

Elżbieta Bieńkowska, the commissioner for the internal market, said the new measures were needed “to address the new reality we are confronted with. We need to remove regulatory divergences across the EU by imposing stricter, harmonized EU standards for firearms and ensuring efficient exchange of information between member states.”

A regulation adopted Wednesday by the Commission will enter into force in three months. It introduces new common standards for decommissioning firearms in the EU.

EU countries must “designate a competent authority to verify that the deactivation of the firearm has been carried out in accordance with the technical specifications” set out by the Commission, the legal text says.

Slovakian media reported in February that the terrorists attacking Charlie Hebdo in January bought their Kalashnikovs legally in Slovakia, where they were sold as decommissioned weapons to be used as film props, but then found an expert in Belgium who was able to reactivate them.

As a second measure, the Commission proposed a revision of the EU’s firearms directive, which completely bans the sale of semi-automatic firearms to private persons across the EU. Moreover, the online sale of decommissioned weapons of any type to private persons would be prohibited.

Under the directive, the Commission also proposed common rules on marking firearms to improve their traceability, on a better exchange of information between countries and on stricter conditions for the circulation of deactivated firearms.

This directive, however, will still need a green light from the Parliament and Council in the upcoming months.

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“This is a very strict and tight legal package,” Bieńkowska said, expressing her hope that Parliament and Council would move ahead quickly with their approval.

The measures were part of an effort by the Commission to show the EU could boost internal security as a response to the Paris attacks, but without suspending the Schengen agreement on free movement across borders.

Some politicians, including French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, had attacked the Schengen zone in response to the terror attacks, arguing that national borders should be reintroduced to prevent terrorists moving freely between countries.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship, responded Wednesday by saying that EU countries should increase safety by better applying the existing legal framework.

“Schengen is not the problem,” Avramopoulos said. “If we make full use of the tools given to us by Schengen, our external borders will be protected in a sufficient way.”

Schengen, he added, is the “greatest achievement of European integration.”

Referring to the fact that several of the Paris attackers were EU citizens, Avramopoulos also demanded more engagement against radicalization. “We must address the root causes of why people radicalize, particularly if they are born here. This is our youth that is turning against us.”