Debate about New Year’s Eve fireworks
There is a ban on firecrackers in this EU country
Updated 12/29/2025 – 11:49 amReading time: 3 minutes
Fireworks sales have also been going on in the Netherlands since Monday. Probably for the last time. From New Year’s Eve 2026 there will be a ban on firecrackers – unless an exception applies.
Leon Groeneveld is worried about the new year. He sees “literally black.” Groenveld is chairman of the Pyrotechnics Industry Association Netherlands (BPN). In this respect, he is not only looking at the ongoing sale of fireworks in the country, but above all at a regulation that should take effect from New Year’s Eve 2026. Then there is a ban on private fireworks in the Netherlands.
Groenveld told the newspaper “Parool”: “For many companies, fireworks are just an additional business. But there are also companies for which sales of pyrotechnics are crucial to their business.”
These are the supporters and opponents in the dispute over a ban on firecrackers.
In April, the Dutch parliament banned private fireworks displays. The request came from the red-green list alliance of Social Democrats and Greens around the new parliamentary group leader Jesse Klaver and Esther Ouwehand, head of the Party for the Animals.
Accordingly, a ban on fireworks will take effect in the Netherlands at the turn of the year 2026. Only firecrackers in the weakest category F1, such as firecrackers, are permitted for private individuals. However, municipalities can designate fireworks zones where private fireworks are permitted. The opposite of the fireworks ban zones in Germany.
A ban on fireworks was already discussed in Parliament in 1985. At the time, the government promised that a ban would “only be considered as a last resort, after all other efforts have been made.” Now the time has come.
The debate gained momentum over the past decade. After the number of people injured by firecrackers increased, an initiative by doctors called for a ban on fireworks. The “Vuurwerksmanifesto” spoke of 1.6 blind people per hour of fireworks and demanded: “The turn of the year 2015/16 shows: We need a ban on private fireworks.”
