Project VISTA

Context

Project VISTA addresses the issue of illicit firearms proliferation in EU Member States and neighbouring countries, which increases the risk of terrorist attacks, organised crime, and other violent acts.  The project aims to support the EU’s Action Plan on Firearms Trafficking by improving the intelligence picture at the EU level regarding firearms-related incidents and seizures, enhancing law enforcement capabilities, and fostering international cooperation.

The project is driven by the need to tackle the patchy intelligence picture on illicit firearms due to the lack of systematic and harmonized seizure data collection. 

Goals

VISTA aims to improve the overall intelligence picture at the EU level through:

• Upgrading and expanding a real-time tool (the Gun Violence Incident Monitor) for firearms-related incidents and seizures across the EU and non-EU countries.  
• Promoting the harmonization of firearms seizure data and interconnections at the EU level.
• Supporting EU Member States in creating or updating their national IT systems for storing and exchanging data on seized firearms.
• Conducting research studies on gun violence, firearms seizures and trafficking across the EU and neighbouring countries.
  
  VISTA will enhance the ability of law enforcement agencies to identify emerging threats, improve the exchange of firearms and seizure data, and ultimately contribute to the reduction of gun violence and the protection of public spaces.

Beneficiaries

VISTA’s results will benefit stakeholders at national level (LEAs), and at EU and international levels (EUROPOL, EMPACT Firearms, FRONTEX, INTERPOL, OSCE, UNODC, SEESAC).

VISTA builds upon previous EU-funded projects (REGISYNC, INSIGHT) and complements ongoing projects in the field of firearms control (FORTIFY, FOCAL SF2, and CEASEFIRE). It innovatively expands the monitoring of firearms violence and focuses on enhancing capabilities for data collection, analysis, and information exchange related to illicit firearms. In addition to benefiting LEAs and Europol, the project’s outcomes are intended to be used by policy makers, researchers and journalists to analyse the scope, characteristics and contexts of firearms incidents.

Scope, duration and deliverables

VISTA will cover all 27 EU Member States, the Western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia), Moldova and Ukraine.

The VISTA project will be implemented in 36 months. It was launched in March 2025 and is scheduled to be completed in February 2028.

In this timeframe, the project will deliver:

• A report on the core and common needs of LEAs in regards to firearms seizure data collection, analysis and dissemination
• A paper with policy recommendations on the harmonisation and standardisation of firearms seizure data
• Capacity Enabling Lines reports for selected 8 countries
• Paper on seizure databases’ ability to capture emerging firearms threats, including privately made firearms
• Papers on public mass shootings, drug related violence with firearms and explosives, terrorist firearm violence, and firearms violence in public spaces
• Updated country profiles on the gun violence monitoring platform gunviolence.eu

Partners

Project VISTA has received funding from the EU Internal Security Fund.

The VISTA consortium consists of 7 partners and 3 associate partners.

Partners: Arquebus Europe, Center for the Study of Democracy (project coordinator), Ecorys, Flemish Peace Institute, Guardia Civil, International Centre for Counter-Terrorism, and Textgain.

Associate Partners: Belgian Federal Police; Dutch Police; National Police Bulgaria.