As local and transnational terrorism and organised crime continue to be major security threats in the European Union, pyrotechnic articles risk being increasingly used for criminal activities, calling for a new assessment of the security threats associated with such articles.
The Pyrotechnics Directive 2013/29/EU regulates the movement of pyrotechnic articles within the single market, aiming at eliminating barriers to trade while ensuring a high level of protection of human health and safety, as well as of consumers and professional end-users. In the last two decades, however, the use of pyrotechnics articles to build improvised explosives devices (IEDs) has increased, also due to the restrictions on the availability of explosive precursors introduced by Regulation (EU) 2019/1148.
Spark, in consortium with Ecorys, TNO, and Fondazione SAFE, will support the European Commission (DG HOME) in assessing the feasibility of the potential options to tackle the growing security problems posed by the criminal misuse of pyrotechnic articles.
The consortium will assess the state of play of the pyrotechnic threat and provide comprehensive responses to the study questions and conclusions, suggesting possible measures to better address this threat. Spark will then conduct desk research, carry out targeted interviews with stakeholders and conduct a case study to analyse the collected data to provide comprehensive support to the European Commission.
