a.Automatic weapons — specified in ML1., or weapons specified in ML2., ML4., ML12. or ML19., or 'mountings' or hard points for weapons having a calibre of 12,7 mm or greater.

Although the wording of point a) in Annex 1 point 4 seems fairly clear, nevertheless the failure to specifically define long firearms in point b) has created certain difficulties of interpretation; the misguided practice has arisen of regarding as 'short firearms' firearms whose overall length is less than 60 cm but which have a barrel whose total length exceeds 30 cm.

1. For the purposes of this Directive, 'firearm' shall mean any portable barrelled weapon that expels, is designed to expel or may be converted to expel a shot, bullet or projectile by the action of an explosive, unless it meets the definition but is excluded for one of the reasons listed in part III of Annex I. Firearms are classified in part II of Annex I".

It is also necessary to systematise physical controls of arms shipments at point of import, transit and export.

And we now have a challenge; that that agency should function transparently and efficiently, but that it should not only function in relation to the two important challenges – that of the safety of sea transport, including passenger and coastal shipping, and that of the protection of the marine environment – but also in relation to those small details and areas which are not apparently as essential as the big issues, such as recreational boating – including the issue of jet skis and speed-boats which cause concern amongst the citizens of Europe.

What might have seemed scenes from dramatic films until a few years ago are now images we see daily in the media: ramshackle old lighters, disused barges, sailing boats from the time of Sandokan the pirate and overflowing dinghies bring hundreds upon hundreds of despairing people to our shores who have often spent copious amounts of money to get that far and are subjected to days and days of deprivation and hardship. Many of them, men, women and children, die during the journey or are thrown into the sea by their captains, as happened along the coasts of Sicily and Puglia.