“We see year after year that there are casualties, that people are injured in their legs and arms,” Nathalie Debast, spokesperson for the advocacy group, told POLITICO. “We also see some people using fireworks to attack emergency workers and police officers. This has escalated quite a bit.”
Even in Brussels, where a local ban on pyrotechnics was in place, several flares and firecrackers were set off in the city center. The Belgian capital saw 159 arrests on New Year’s Eve, with police responding to more than 1,700 incidents across the city.
According to VVSG, a sales ban should apply to all EU countries to prevent people from circumventing it by simply crossing a border to buy fireworks.
But animal rights group GAIA remains skeptical of a Europe-wide ban. “When we hear that Europe has to deal with something, it is usually an excuse for politicians not to do anything in their own member state,” Ann de Greef, director of GAIA, told POLITICO.
“I hope that Belgium will finally ban fireworks, because on New Year’s Eve there were again animal casualties. A dog was killed, a cow had a heart attack, horses were killed, so enough is enough.”
The ball is now in the court of the Belgian government, de Greef added.
The Flemish mayors’ association said it had also contacted Belgian government officials first, although it intends to “escalate” its demands by contacting partner organizations in neighboring countries, the European Committee of the Regions, and larger institutions such as the European Parliament.
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