di Chiara Bonaiuti
The war in Ukraine has drawn attention to the importance of a politics of prevention when it comes to trade in general and the arms trade in particular. This should take into account the records on human rights and democracy of governments’ commercial partners.
The European Union has long striven to strengthen control of arms exports, at the national and Eu levels. In 1998 the Council of the Eu approved a Code of Conduct on European Arms Exports, which became a Council Common Position a decade later.
Eight criteria thereby orient member states. The second particularly concerns respect for human rights in the country of final destination as well as respect, by that country, for international humanitarian law. Principles of responsibility, prevention and accountability are mentioned in the preamble and inspire the overall stance, enforced at the national level.
Each member state has its own regulations on arms exports. These have distinct characteristics—some more strict, other more flexible or export-oriented. Assessed on the strictness of the criteria, the role of parliament and transparency, sanctions and controls, Sweden, Germany and Italy have a tradition of more stringent and prescriptive regulations. France and the United Kingdom (considered here pre- and post-Brexit) are more pro-export, despite deep differences in their relationships between the state and the arms market.
Legislation can work
Have these regulations at the national and Eu levels affected Eu arms-export practices? And have member states taken into account the human-rights records of the importing countries?
These questions can be answered using two main sources: the arms transfers database of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (which calculates trend-indicator values of exports of conventional major weapons systems) and Freedom House (which calculates degrees of freedom and civil and political rights, hence classifying countries as ‘free’, ‘partially free’ or ‘not free’). Combining them, the values and percentages of arms exports to ‘not free’ countries can be calculated, at national and EU levels.
The arms market in the Eu is very concentrated: the Uk, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands supply 94 per cent of Eu arms exports. Figure 1 shows the trend for five countries in the three decades to 2020.
The war in Ukraine has drawn attention to the importance of a politics of prevention when it comes to trade in general and the arms trade in particular. This should take into account the records on human rights and democracy of governments’ commercial partners.
The European Union has long striven to strengthen control of arms exports, at the national and Eu levels. In 1998 the Council of the Eu approved a Code of Conduct on European Arms Exports, which became a Council Common Position a decade later.
Eight criteria thereby orient member states. The second particularly concerns respect for human rights in the country of final destination as well as respect, by that country, for international humanitarian law. Principles of responsibility, prevention and accountability are mentioned in the preamble and inspire the overall stance, enforced at the national level.
Each member state has its own regulations on arms exports. These have distinct characteristics—some more strict, other more flexible or export-oriented. Assessed on the strictness of the criteria, the role of parliament and transparency, sanctions and controls, Sweden, Germany and Italy have a tradition of more stringent and prescriptive regulations. France and the United Kingdom (considered here pre- and post-Brexit) are more pro-export, despite deep differences in their relationships between the state and the arms market.
Legislation can work
Have these regulations at the national and Eu levels affected Eu arms-export practices? And have member states taken into account the human-rights records of the importing countries?
These questions can be answered using two main sources: the arms transfers database of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (which calculates trend-indicator values of exports of conventional major weapons systems) and Freedom House (which calculates degrees of freedom and civil and political rights, hence classifying countries as ‘free’, ‘partially free’ or ‘not free’). Combining them, the values and percentages of arms exports to ‘not free’ countries can be calculated, at national and EU levels.
The arms market in the Eu is very concentrated: the Uk, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands supply 94 per cent of Eu arms exports. Figure 1 shows the trend for five countries in the three decades to 2020.
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