28 March 2012
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Use of TASERS
Council of the European Union and European Commission answers
to palriamnetary questions
WRITTEN QUESTION by Marco Cappato (ALDE) , Sophia in 't Veld (ALDE), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (ALDE) , Metin Kazak (ALDE) , Luciana Sbarbati (ALDE) and Bill Newton Dunn (ALDE) to the Council
Subject: Tasers Answer(s)
On 14 October a Polish citizen, Robert Dziekanski, died at the
Canadian Vancouver International Airport after being arrested
by the police and being tasered. Information collected by Amnesty
International as well as by media shows that tasers appear to
be linked to a high number of
deaths since this instrument was put onto the market and used
by the police. According to the UN Committee against Torture,
the use of tasers can be a form of torture, in violation of the
UN Convention Against Torture.
Has the Council information about health and death risks linked
to tasers? If it does not, will it collect such information?
Does it sponsor any taser-related studies through its funds?
Does it know which
Member States allow the production, selling and use, by the general
public and by police forces, of tasers? Does it plan to ban them
on EU soil?
Parliamentary questions
30 January 2008 E-6204/2007
Reply
The Council does not possess any information about the health
and death risks linked to tasers, nor on their production, sale
and use in the Member States. At present there are no plans to
deal with this matter within the Council structures and, as a
consequence, there are so far no plans to ban tasers on EU territory.
The Council is also not aware of any taser-related studies
sponsored by EU funds but would like to refer the Honourable
Members to the Commission for any complementary information.
Parliamentary questions
11 December 2007 E-6205/07
WRITTEN QUESTION by Marco Cappato (ALDE) , Sophia in 't Veld
(ALDE) ,
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (ALDE) , Metin Kazak (ALDE) , Luciana
Sbarbati (ALDE) and Bill Newton Dunn (ALDE) to the Commission
Subject: Tasers Answer(s)
On 14 October a Polish citizen, Robert Dziekanski, died at Canadian
Vancouver International Airport after being arrested by the police
and being tasered. Information collected by Amnesty International
as well as by media shows that tasers appear to be linked to
a high number of deaths since this instrument was put onto the
market and used by the police. According to the UN Committee
against Torture, the use of tasers can be a form of torture,
in violation of the UN Convention Against Torture.
Has the Commission information about health and death risks
linked to tasers? If it does not, will it collect such information?
Does it sponsor any taser-related studies through its funds?
Does it know which Member States allow the production, selling
and use, by the general public and by police forces, of tasers?
Does it plan to ban them on EU soil?
Parliamentary questions
23 January 2008 E-6205/2007
Answer given by Mr Frattini on behalf of the Commission
The Commission is aware that there is some controversy surrounding
the possible health risks related to the use of Tasers, and in
particular its potential effect on the cardiac function.
According to a November 2007 study led by the United Kingdom
Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), Tasers are
unlikely to harm the human heart, whereas Amnesty International
considers that dozens of deaths can be associated with their
use. The Commission has however no
specific information about the possible physical hazards of a
Taser strike.
As regards the selling and trade of Tasers, Council Directive 91/477/EEC(1) on firearms does not cover such a device as it is not a firearm and as the directive excludes from its scope police or military forces.
It is therefore up to each Member State, in the respect of
the terms of the EC Treaty, to decide what restrictions to impose
to the importation/exportation, production, selling and conditions
of use of
these objects, which may of course be defined as weapons according
to national legislation and submitted to subsequent restrictions.
(1) Council Directive 91/477/EEC of 18 June 1991 on control
of the acquisition and possession of weapons, OJ L 256, 13.9.1991.
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