1. Member States shall intensify controls on the possession of weapons at the external borders of the Union. They shall in particular ensure that travellers from third countries who intend to proceed to another Member State comply with Article 17.
2. This Directive shall not preclude the carrying out of controls by Member States or by the carrier at the time of boarding of a means of transport.
3. Member States shall inform the Commission of the manner in which the controls referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 are carried out. The Commission shall collate that information and make it available to all Member States.
4. Member States shall notify the Commission of their national provisions, including changes relating to the acquisition and possession of weapons, where the national law is more stringent than the minimum standard they are required to adopt. The Commission shall pass on such information to the other Member States.
Member States shall lay down the rules on penalties applicable to infringements of the national provisions adopted pursuant to this Directive and shall take all measures necessary to ensure that they are implemented. The penalties provided for shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.
By 14 September 2020, and every five years thereafter, the Commission shall submit to the European Parliament and to the Council a report on the application of this Directive, including a fitness check of its provisions, accompanied, if appropriate, by legislative proposals concerning, in particular, the categories of firearms in Annex I and issues related to the implementation of the system for the European firearms pass, to marking and to the impacts of new technologies such as 3D printing, the use of QR code and the use of radio-frequency identification (RFID).
Member States shall communicate to the Commission the text of the main measures of national law which they adopt in the field covered by this Directive.
Directive 91/477/EEC, as amended by the Directives listed in Part A of Annex III to this Directive, is repealed, without prejudice to the obligations of the Member States relating to the time limits for the transposition into national law of the Directives set out in Part B of Annex III to this Directive.
References to the repealed Directive shall be construed as references to this Directive and shall be read in accordance with the correlation table in Annex IV to this Directive.
This Directive shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .
This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
