Request for a preliminary ruling from the Korkein hallinto-oikeus (Finland) lodged on 7 May 2021 – A

(Case C-296/21)

Language of the case: Finnish

Referring court

Korkein hallinto-oikeus

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicant: A

Defendants: Helsingin poliisilaitos and Poliisihallitus

Questions referred

In the case of transfers of deactivated firearms within the Union, taking into account the provisions of Council Directive 91/477/EEC of 18 June 1991 on control of the acquisition and possession of weapons, as amended by Directive 2008/51/EC ¹ of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008, and the provisions of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2403 ² of 15 December 2015 establishing common guidelines on deactivation standards and techniques for ensuring that deactivated firearms are rendered irreversibly inoperable, in particular Article 3(1) of that regulation:

can a verifying entity which has been confirmed by a national authority and has issued a deactivation certificate be regarded as an entity within the meaning of the Weapons Directive and Articles 3 and 7 of the Deactivation Regulation even though it is not included in the list published by the Commission pursuant to Article 3(3), where various authorities of that Member State have notified the transferor of the weapons that the verifying entity, operating in the legal form of a limited liability company (GmbH), which issued the certificate is authorised to do so under that regulation; and

can a verifying entity designated by a Member State for the purposes of the deactivation of weapons also be validated by means of other evidence obtained from a national authority instead of by means of inclusion in the list published on the Commission’s website within the meaning of Article 3(3) of the regulation, such that a deactivation certificate issued by that verifying entity meets the requirements laid down in that regulation to the effect that a Member State must recognise a deactivation certificate issued in another Member State in accordance with Article 7(2) of the regulation?

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¹ Directive 2008/51/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 amending Council Directive 91/477/EEC on control of the acquisition and possession of weapons (OJ 2008 L 179, p. 5).

² Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2403 of 15 December 2015 establishing common guidelines on deactivation standards and techniques for ensuring that deactivated firearms are rendered irreversibly inoperable (OJ 2015 L 333, p. 62).