{"id":176091,"date":"2025-06-11T16:17:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T16:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/176091\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T16:17:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T16:17:10","slug":"sweden-eyes-eu-fireworks-ban-to-blow-up-the-mob-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/176091\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweden eyes EU fireworks ban to blow up the mob \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhile illegal firearms have been most commonly used by criminal networks when carrying out violent attacks, there is a growing tendency toward using explosives,\u201d Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Str\u00f6mmer and Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin, said in the letter dated May 22.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One key source of explosives is \u201cpyrotechnic articles,\u201d Str\u00f6mmer and Bohlin wrote \u2014 a technical term that often refers to fireworks. \u201cThe development in modus has changed rapidly, and there is considerable risk that this type of violence spreads rapidly to other member states,\u201d the ministers warned.<\/p>\n

The Commission should \u201crapidly\u201d update the EU\u2019s Pyrotechnics Directive<\/a>, a 2013 law that regulates the market for fireworks across Europe, Sweden is asking. Specifically, it wants to make the law tougher on the illicit trade of fireworks; bring in measures to make it easier to track their sale; get law enforcement and the industry to work together; and even use artificial intelligence to prevent the illicit trade, trafficking and transport of pyrotechnics.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cWhile illegal firearms have been most commonly used by criminal networks when carrying out violent attacks, there is a growing tendency toward using explosives,\u201d Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Str\u00f6mmer (pictured) and Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin, said in the letter dated May 22.\u00a0| Atila Altuntas\/Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The EU should also get tougher on blank weapons, which criminals often modify to use for real shootings, the Swedish ministers said.<\/p>\n

Updating the pyrotechnics legislation is one of the targets in the EU\u2019s recent internal security strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The crime spree is causing concern with Sweden\u2019s neighbors, too, with Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard drawing attention<\/a> to organized criminals\u2019 use of encrypted messaging services to recruit kids into crimes including \u201cmurders, attempted murders [and] explosions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhile illegal firearms have been most commonly used by criminal networks when carrying out violent attacks, there is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1699,2915,23905,2003,23906,811,17566,812,1116,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-176091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-exclusive","13":"tag-illicit-drugs","14":"tag-law-enforcement","15":"tag-magnus-brunner","16":"tag-security","17":"tag-stephane-sejourne","18":"tag-sweden","19":"tag-weapons","20":"tag-youth"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}