V. Developments in the European Union’s dual-use and arms trade controls

Chapter:

12. Dual-use and arms trade controls

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2023

Author(s):

Mark Bromley

The European Union (EU) is currently the only regional organization with a common legal framework for controls on the export, brokering, transit and trans-shipment of dual-use items and also, to a certain extent, military items. The key elements of this legal framework are the EU’s arms embargoes (addressed in section II of this chapter), the dual-use regulation, foreign and direct investment (FDI) screening regulation, the common position on arms exports, the directive on intra-Community transfers, and the anti-torture regulation. During 2022 the EU took steps to implement a new version of the dual-use regulation which was adopted in 2021. The EU and its member states also reported on steps taken to implement the FDI screening regulation, which entered into force in 2020, and continued to expand its coordination with the United States on export control issues, particularly via the work of the Trade and Technology Council (TTC). The EU also began work on a review of the common position. No major developments took place in the directive on intra-Community transfers or the anti-torture regulation. In a set of parallel developments the EU also discussed how exports of military materiel funded by the European Peace Facility (EPF) will be managed and the steps that will be taken at the EU and member state level to prevent the diversion of supplied weapons.