MEPs at Trade Committee gave a green light to new rules aimed at making exports of arms for sport and recreational uses more transparent and efficient, while helping to fight illegal trafficking. One of the main goals of this report is establishing rules for export authorisation and the import and transit of firearms.

The report asks for an "export procedure" to be introduced at the regulation, under which member states will be granted export authorisation after getting a green light from the country they are exporting to and so long as there are no objections from transit countries. If the regulation is finally approved by Council and EP, an authorisation should be granted within 60 days of the request and would be valid for 12 months, or up to 2 years in some cases.

Salvatore Iacolino, Parliament's draftsman for the report, stated that this will allow the streamlining of the bureaucratic machine, introducing very simple procedures in order to accelerate trade when related to civil activities such as hunting. He considers this would help to Member States to refuse the authorisation when there are reasonable reasons to believe that the transfer is masking arms traffic. Mr Iacolino has a mandate to negotiate directly with the Council ahead of a vote in plenary, in order to reach a first reading agreement.

Trade Committe at the European Parliament approved this report with the aim to apply partially the 2001 UN Firearms Protocol, aimed at fighting the illicit manufacturing and trafficking of firearms. So far only 13 EU countries have ratified the protocol, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.