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

07-05-2010 MEP Meyer concerned with Spains Arms Export

According the Willy Meyers (GUE/NGL) sources, Spain is one of the leading arms-and heavy weaponry exporting countries in the world and the main purchasers include the United States, Israel and developing countries. This is problematic and incoherent with EU policy on different levels and therefore Meyer is right in raising his concerns on the matter.

The EU Member States have signed legislation that state that no arms will be exported if there is a clear risk that the intended recipient would use the arms aggressively against another country, assert a territorial claim or simply violate human rights. Spain breaches these legislations by exporting their arms and weapons to countries like Colombia where they are used for exactly those causes.

The arms trade policy of the EU and its Member States is not only incoherent with international law but also with its own development policy. The EU provides sustainable amounts of development aid to developing countries with a promise to fight poverty, but it also exports arms, either directly or indirectly, to those same countries. The imported arms that are used for violence and human rights violations are counterproductive to the development efforts.

Fair Politics greatly appreciates Meyers effort to put the subject back onto the agenda. The case on Arms-Trade Policies is momentarily outdated and efforts are made to update the case as soon as possible.

Monitor fair: GUE/NGL

Parliamentary questions
7 May 2010
E-3221/10
WRITTEN QUESTION by Willy Meyer (GUE/NGL) to the Council

Subject: Spain and the European Union Code of Conduct on arms exports

According to a report drawn up by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Spain was in sixth place in the world ranking of arms-exporting countries in 2009. The figures for the years between 2005 and 2009 put Spain in eighth place in terms of exports of heavy weaponry. Spain chiefly sells ships, cargo planes, sensors and armoured vehicles.

The main purchasers of Spanish weaponry over this period were the United States and Colombia. However, the above SIPRI report does not include sales of light weapons to Israel. In 2008, a matter of months before the invasion of Gaza, the Spanish Government provided Israel with machineguns, rifles, infrared equipment and pistols worth EUR 1.5 million.

The sale of arms to countries such as Israel, Colombia and the United States is in clear breach of Criterion Four of the European Union Code of Conduct on arms exports (8675/2/98), which states that Member States will not issue an export licence if there is a clear risk that the intended recipient would use the proposed export aggressively against another country or to assert by force a territorial claim, and of Criterion Two on the respect of human rights in the country of final destination, according to which no export licence will be issued if there is a clear risk of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, summary or arbitrary executions, disappearances, arbitrary detentions and other major violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

//Given that Spain is exporting arms to countries such as Israel, Colombia and the United States, which act in breach of international law and in which flagrant violations of human rights are committed, can the Council answer the following questions://

 What is the Council's position on Spain's violation of the European Union Code of Conduct on arms exports, specifically Criteria Two and Four?
 What steps has the European Union taken to ensure that Member States, specifically Spain, apply the criteria laid down in this agreement?