Then why don't they just make the use of hacking tools for criminal purposes a criminal offence and not the possession and distribution of said tools?

I can't judge the MEP's intent, but my best guess is that tobiasu has it right on the money when he says it's "toothless feel-good" stuff.

OK. I feel better now thinking it's just a useless law that will change nothing.

I don't. Why pass these laws in the first place? I don't like junk in my legal system.

Why pass such things? It's just another silly law to allow for applying another charge to someone during the arrest. In several cases you can see that the authorities slap on all kinds of charges in which most of them are eventually dropped. Kind like the throw pasts on the wall theory of law enforcement, something's bound to stick.

Plus it allows them to pick and choose who they arrest in any group when almost everyone in that group is possibly breaking a law they are not aware of.

So, totalitarian tactics. Nobody should stand for this, even if it's "toothless".

That would be a useless law. For comparison: once murder is illegal, there is no need to have separate laws forbidding using a gun/screwdriver/BIC pen to kill somebody, is there?

Similarly, why would it make a difference whether someone usd hacking tools to commit a crime?