EU 'to kill off firework displays' as new safety regulations come into force

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A directive already approved by MEPs and EU ministers will force Britain and other member nations to tear up their own safety standards and adopt new regulations by 2010.

Health and safety bureaucrats in Brussels also want to make manufacturers pay for the retesting of tens of thousands of fireworks already considered safe in Britain.

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Bang: Firework displays such are under threat due to new EU legislation

Tom Smith, the Confederation of British Industry spokesman for the pyrotechnics industry, said the new rules would make it impossible for firework-display firms to produce shows of variety and value.

"Not a single person in Britain will be made safer by all this additional testing, but everyone will be affected by it becoming much more expensive and bureaucratic to import fireworks," he said.

"It's a very real threat. You won't have New Year's Eve shows in London and Edinburgh, or on Guy Fawkes Night.

"We wouldn't even have a display at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics."

The new European standard will see the British Standard Institute's "kitemark" replaced with the European "CE" mark.

As part of the change, people will be told to retire at least 26ft after lighting a firework, as opposed to the current 16ft - effectively ruling out many displays at home.

But Tom Smith added: "Many people will no longer be able to use fireworks as they haven't got 26ft of space in their gardens."

David Southerland, of the Department For Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, claimed last night that there was still time to change "burdensome and costly" aspects of the directive.