Annexes to COM(2015)624 - Implementing the European Agenda on Security: EU action plan against illicit trafficking in and use of firearms and explosives

Please note

This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.

dossier COM(2015)624 - Implementing the European Agenda on Security: EU action plan against illicit trafficking in and use of firearms and ...
document COM(2015)624 EN
date December  2, 2015
Agreements and related subcommittees on Justice and Home Affairs issues and, where relevant, the specific counter-terrorism dialogues (already started with Tunisia or about to start with Lebanon, Jordan, Algeria and Morocco). 

The illicit spread and trafficking of conventional arms within and from Libya continues to fuel insecurity in the region, including through further diversion of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) 51 or MANPADS 52 . Militias in Libya have reportedly also seized chemical weapons from arsenals stored under poor conditions, which are at risk of falling in the hands of violent extremist groups or terrorists.

Once a Government of National Accord is formed, the EU will, as a matter of priority and in coordination with other relevant international partners, offer counter-terrorism capacity development programmes to the Libyan authorities. Tackling the illicit trafficking of firearms and use of explosives will be a vital component of such a package.

Enhancing cooperation with Ukraine

It is in the interest of both the EU and Ukraine to enhance their cooperation against common threats posed by the illicit trafficking and use of firearms and explosives. At same time, the EU could strengthen its support to reform the civilian security sector in Ukraine, including in the area of interest covered by this Communication.

Enhancing cooperation with Turkey

The current EU-Turkey dialogue on Counter-terrorism should be extended to the illicit trafficking and use of firearms and explosives.

Enhancing cooperation with other regional actors and international organisations

Terrorist and criminal groups add to the volatile security situation in Libya, with an impact on Sahel (e.g. Mali) and the security situation in the Lake Chad region (in particular Nigeria). The Commission, in coordination with the EEAS, will ensure relevant support to counter these groups through security-related assistance, possibly including under the newly set-up European Union Emergency Trust Fund for stability and addressing root causes of irregular migration and displaced persons in Africa.

The Commission will assist the League of Arab States (LAS) 53 countries in the development of a computerised system of control of transfers of arms and armaments and will explore ways in which the LAS contact points on SALW could work with comparable EU structures.

Based on existing EU efforts undertaken through the implementation of the 2005 EU Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) Strategy 54 as well the European Security Strategy 55 , the EU will continue promoting the ratification, transposition and implementation of relevant international conventions, such as the Arms Trade Treaty, and the Firearms protocol to the UN Convention on Transnational Organised Crime. Use will also be made of the CBRN regional networks as established in eight regions under the EU Risk Mitigation Initiative.


CONCLUSIONS

The Commission calls upon the Member States and all other relevant stakeholders to take all necessary steps to ensure the swift implementation of this Action Plan. The Commission will report to the European Parliament and the Council on the implementation of this Action Plan within the framework of the six-monthly update on the implementation of the European Agenda on Security.



(1) http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/e-library/documents/basic-documents/docs/eu_agenda_on_security_en.pdf
(2)

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2015/10/08-jha-fighting-trafficking-firearms/

(3) http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-6110_en.htm  
(4) Restricted document.
(5) http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/documents-publications/publications/2015/eu-policy-cycle-tackle-organized-crime/  
(6) Explosives precursors are chemical substances or mixtures which can be used for the manufacture of explosives.
(7) This idea was proposed by Member States at the EU Seminar on the use of forensic analysis to enhance strategic and operational analysis for operational and tactical purposes. Birmingham – 11th November 2015.
(8) Relevant research projects concerning the monitoring of Internet have already been launched in the context of the Horizon 2020 programme, http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/
(9) The EU IRU, launched on 1st July 2015 to combat terrorist propaganda and related violent extremist activities on the Internet.
(10) Including at national level, from the private sector and academia.
(11) Information stemming from law enforcement operations points out to the vulnerability of firearm trade fairs to the illicit trafficking of firearms.
(12) http://ec.europa.eu/research/fp7/index_en.cfm The Commission is already funding, through the Internal Security Fund (ISF), two relevant studies namely project EFFECT and project FIRE which aim to improve knowledge of the illicit trafficking of firearms and to facilitate the development of evidence-based policies and actions across Europe. The Commission has also awarded around EUR 60 million to 15 explosives-related projects under the FP7 research programme (), as well as several projects under the Prevention of and fight against crime programme. The Commission will fund further security research projects under Horizon 2020 Secure societies programme and ISF.
(13) 3D printing can be used to manufacture firearms and produce essential components to reactivate deactivated firearms. Non-metallic weapons, such as those made of kevlar and ceramics, present a potential risk requiring close monitoring.
(14) Council document Doc. 8109/08.
(15) This included 48 actions aimed at, in a comprehensive manner, to address a wide number of aspects linked to ensuring the security of explosives, such as precursors, storage, transport, traceability, detection, research, cross-border information exchange and inter-agency coordination.
(16) This Regulation restricts and enhances control over a number of dangerous chemical substances which are precursors to explosives and can therefore be misused to manufacture home-made explosives.
(17) Operators, from manufacturers to retailers, have an obligation to report suspicious activity to the national contact points in each Member State. They are best placed to identify transactions that fall outside of normal activity in each sector and to observe suspicious behaviour.
(18) The review will be done in consultation with the Standing Committee on Precursors expert group, http://ec.europa.eu/transparency/regexpert/index.cfm?do=groupDetail.groupDetail&groupID=3245
(19) This concern was already laid out in the Commission's 2014 Communication on a new approach to the detection and mitigation of CBRN-E risks, COM(2014) 247 final.
(20) This was already foreseen in the 2008 Action Plan.
(21) The Commission has streamlined the financial assistance to operational actions. Under the European Multidisciplinary Platform against Criminal Threats (EMPACT) Delegation Agreement, EUR 7 million were transferred to Europol of which about EUR 350 000 were earmarked so as to ensure the implementation of the Operational Action Plan (OAP) on firearms in spring 2015. Privileged funding to the OAP on firearms will be provided by Europol in 2016.
(22) Restricted document.
(23) https://www.europol.europa.eu/content/global-action-against-dark-markets-tor-network
(24) https://www.europol.europa.eu/content/cybercriminal-darkode-forum-taken-down-through-global-action
(25) The Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce is hosted at the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) at Europol. It was launched on 1 September 2014 to further strengthen the fight against cybercrime in the European Union and beyond.
(26) In the context of the Digital Single Market Strategy , the Commission is assessing how best to tackle illegal content on the internet.
(27) See Council conclusions on systems and mechanisms for the enhancement of the security of explosives of 26 April 2010, http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/jha/114017.pdf
(28) COM(2015) 750 final of 18.11.2015. Proposal for a Directive of the EP and of the Council amending Council Directive 91/477/EEC on control of the acquisition and possession of weapons.
(29) COM(2014)527 of 21.8.2014 final. Communication on the EU Strategy and Action Plan for customs risk management: Tackling risks, strengthening supply chain security and facilitating trade.
(30) The European Firearms Expert Group, composed of experts from each EU Member State, Europol and associate members Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey, was established in 2004 to facilitate exchange of information and promote cooperation against the illicit trafficking of firearms. This highly valued network supports the Council's Law Enforcement Working Party.
(31) http://www.smallarmsstandards.org/
(32) European Police College, https://www.cepol.europa.eu/who-we-are/european-police-college/about-us
(33) The EEODN has in recent years become a highly valued network offering training and information sharing, including on recent incidents, to explosives experts from all Member States, and has substantially contributed to building capacity and exchanging good practices.
(34) COM(2014) 247 final, 5.5.2014.
(35) Resulting from such trials, different guidance material has been developed, such as for airport soft target protection, use of explosives detection dogs and soft target protection in different environments, as well as for the detection of firearms residues and explosives on passports which will be made available to Member States.
(36) SIS is the largest data exchange platform on lost and stolen firearms within the EU and the Schengen associated countries. To date, 29 countries in Europe are connected. On 31 December 2014, it held 457.059 firearm alerts, with only 180 hits effectively achieved in 2014 (on a total of 128.598 alert hits for all categories of firearms). This very low rate is mainly due to data quality issues, such as the fact that many Member States do not record the caliber, and that serial numbers of firearms are not unique.
(37) http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Firearms/INTERPOL-Illicit-Arms-Records-and-tracing-Management-System-iARMS The EU funded INTERPOL Illicit Arms Records and Tracing Management System (iARMS), facilitates information exchange and investigative cooperation between law enforcement agencies in relation to the international movement of illicit firearms, as well as licit firearms that have been involved in the commission of a crime. The iARMS database of Interpol is being rolled-out to the 190 member countries of Interpol. It contains approximately 756 000 records which are mainly inserted by Australia and Latin-American countries. So far only three percent of the information on firearms in this iARMS database originated in the EU.
(38) The related Universal Message Format project (UMF, a set of building blocks to construct standard data exchanges for interconnecting dispersed law enforcement systems) will be aligned with the SIS-iARMS interoperability project.
(39) Interpol hosts the Ballistic Information Network (IBIN) for countries that have the Integrated Ballistics Identification Systems (IBIS) technology. Currently, 19 countries around the world, 8 of them Schengen area countries are IBIN members. 42 more countries use the IBIS technology but are not part of IBIN (3 of them EU countries). Until now 36 hits have occurred, the majority of them among EU countries.
(40) http://research.shu.ac.uk/aces/odyssey/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=56&Itemid=88
(41) Council Decision 2013/698/CFSP: iTrace gathers and provides precise and cross-verified information with on-the-ground data on illicit trade routes of diverted or trafficked conventional weapons. http://www.conflictarm.com/itrace/  In addition, the iTRACE project also specifically aims to support the implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty by assisting national authorities in detecting the diversion of transferred conventional weapons and in assessing diversion risks when examining export licence applications. Field investigations performed by experts from the private company "Conflict Armament Research" (CAR) in 21 countries (especially in Africa and the Middle East), feed a public access "weapons tracking database" on diverted or trafficked weapons.
(42) 130,000 items documented: weapons, ammunition and related material; 213 Trace requests sent to governments (as of July 2015).
(43) Focal Point members: Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.
(44) Eurojust, Interpol, Switzerland, Australia, US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Albania.
(45) An early warning system was developed under the EU Explosives Action Plan with funding from the Commission, but did not succeed in connecting all Member State authorities.
(46) JOIN(2015) 50 final.
(47) Since 2002, the EU has been supporting efforts to reduce the threat caused by the large scale accumulation of small arms and light weapons (SALW) and ammunition stockpiles in South East Europe ( http://www.seesac.org/news.php?id=495 ). Various projects have been financed by the EU in the Western Balkan region with a view to improve the security of stockpile management.
(48) Following the EU-Western Balkans Ministerial Forum on Justice and Home Affairs held in Tirana in 2012, a regional network of experts in firearms trafficking was set up in 2013. This led to the adoption of the Action Plan. It was endorsed in December 2014 by both the Council and by the Western Balkan partners at the EU – Western Balkans Ministerial Forum on Justice and Home Affairs in Belgrade. The action plan foresees the following actions:
(49) The EU Strategy to combat illicit accumulation and trafficking of SALW and their ammunition. Doc. 5319/06 PESC 31, 13 January 2006;
(50) Such as the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) and the Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP), as is already the case with the new ENI-funded EUROMED Police IV programme (about to be launched).
(51) Weapons from Libya have been found in countries such as Chad, Egypt, Gaza, Mali, Niger, and Tunisia.
(52) Man-portable air-defense systems.
(53) regional organization Arab countries North Africa Horn of Africa Arabia The LAS is a of in and around , the and .
(54) http://eeas.europa.eu/non-proliferation-and-disarmament/conventional_weapons/salw/index_en.htm
(55) http://www.eeas.europa.eu/csdp/about-csdp/european-security-strategy/