La direttiva dell’Unione europea sulle armi da fuoco in una recente sentenza della Corte di giustizia

This article examines a recent judgment of the EU Court of Justice which dismissed the action of the Czech Republic for annulment of EU Directive 2017/853 on control of the acquisition and possession of weapons. This contribution focuses on the Court’s interpretation in this ruling of the principles of conferral of powers, proportionality and non-discrimination, and the right to own firearms in accordance with the right to property enshrined in the Charter of fundamental rights. The analysis points out that in this judgment, with reference to the legal discipline on firearms’ control embodied in Directive 2017/853, the Court maintained a position already affirmed in its most relevant precedents dealing with the products of tobacco. According to this jurisprudence the EU legislator, thanks to the broad harmonization function of art. 114 TFEU, benefits from a wide margin of discretion in balancing the objectives of the internal market and the protection of EU general interests (security, fight against terrorism and transnational organized crime). The protection afforded to EU general interests also emerges in another crucial point of this judgment highlighted in this study in which the Court, in assessing the prohibition of some specific types of firearms imposed by Directive 2017/853, attributes a predominant value to the security of EU citizens as compared to the right to property established in the Charter of fundamental rights.