Policy recommendations

  • All EU Member Sates should work towards an effective new Arms Trade Treaty and towards a new international instrument for the control over brokers. All EU Member States should implement extra-territorial legislation that enables them to control European brokers¡¦ operations from abroad;
  • The EU should adopt a legally binding Common Position on arms trade without any further delay, thereby making the Code of Conduct (CoC) a legally binding instrument;
  • The EU should strengthen the Code of Conduct so that all EU Member States are required to control all transit, are required to apply the CoC criteria for licensed production overseas or subsidiaries, and are required to demand end-user certificates and control over the re-transfer of their arms;
  • The EU should guarantee a more effective use of criterion 8 of the EU-Code of Conduct that takes greater account of the economic situation in the receiving country. This criterion should be redefined in such a way that Member States will only be able to permit a transfer if it can be ensured that the transfer will not harm sustainable development and the applicant/recipient can identify a legitimate defence need for the specific transfer;
  • The EU should discuss high military spending in their bilateral dialogues with those countries that receive EU development aid with the aim of lowering these expenditures and using these funds for development goals;
  • The EU should work towards more coherent policies; the EU council and Commission work groups on arms control and development policies should regularly meet and discuss issues of common concern.

Case: Arms-trade Policies

14-07-2006 Oral question for question time MEP De Rossa: Small arms and light weapons and an International Arms Trade Treaty

14 July 2006

In an oral question for question time MEP Proinsias De Rossa (PSE) asked the Council questions on small arms and light weapons and an International Arms Trade Treaty. 

Fair Politics EU monitors the efforts made by MEPs to address Policy Coherence for Development in their daily political activities. MEP De Rossa’s question to the Council underlines the importance of policy coherence on the subject of biofuels. They urge the Council to be coherent in its actions. For this action, MEP Proinsias De Rossa (PSE) was awarded a coherence star.

Full question can be read below

Gun proliferation is a global problem that requires a binding global solution. Around 640 million small arms and light weapons already exist, and eight million are produced every year. These are estimated to kill half a million people each year, the weapons of mass destruction in the developing world. Their long-term impact on sustainable development is undeniable. The October 2005 Council agreed on the need for an International Arms Trade Treaty. The December 2005 Council adopted an EU Strategy to combat illicit accumulation and trafficking of small arms and light weapons and their ammunition. Since the UN Review Conference on the UN Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects and towards the establishment of an International Arms Trade Treaty failed to agree an outcome document, due to the instransigence of a small number of countries, what initiatives is the Council taking to ensure EU objectives are realised?

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