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“We see 12 months after 12 months that there are casualties, that individuals are injured of their legs and arms,” Nathalie Debast, spokesperson for the advocacy group, advised POLITICO. “We additionally see some folks utilizing fireworks to assault emergency staff and cops. This has escalated fairly a bit.”
Even in Brussels, the place a neighborhood ban on pyrotechnics was in place, a number of flares and firecrackers had been set off within the metropolis heart. The Belgian capital noticed 159 arrests on New Year’s Eve, with police responding to greater than 1,700 incidents throughout the town.
According to VVSG, a gross sales ban ought to apply to all EU international locations to forestall folks from circumventing it by merely crossing a border to purchase fireworks.
But animal rights group GAIA stays skeptical of a Europe-wide ban. “When we hear that Europe has to cope with one thing, it’s normally an excuse for politicians to not do something in their very own member state,” Ann de Greef, director of GAIA, advised POLITICO.
“I hope that Belgium will lastly ban fireworks, as a result of on New Year’s Eve there have been once more animal casualties. A canine was killed, a cow had a coronary heart assault, horses had been killed, so sufficient is sufficient.”
The ball is now within the courtroom of the Belgian authorities, de Greef added.
The Flemish mayors’ affiliation mentioned it had additionally contacted Belgian authorities officers first, though it intends to “escalate” its calls for by contacting accomplice organizations in neighboring international locations, the European Committee of the Regions, and bigger establishments such because the European Parliament.
