|  About  |  Contact  |  FAQ  |  Links  |  Jobs  |  

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
Skip to content.
Sections
 

EU Non-proliferation and Export Controls

Return to project home page
Return to previous page

The Role of the European Union in
Non-proliferation and Export Control

European Union


Important documents for
EU acceeding countries

 Introduction

The European Union's role in armaments, security and defence has become increasingly complex and multi-faceted: export controls of both dual-use items and conventional arms, non-proliferation policies and co-operative threat reduction initiatives.

During the 1990s the European Union developed an export control system including a common legal basis for dual-use export control and strengthened cooperation in conventional arms export control.

The European Union has also exercised a progressively larger influence over the conventional arms export systems of its member states. This expanding influence reflects the increasing role of the EU as a forum in which the member states can harmonize views on legislation, develop common standards and exchange information that helps them to implement their collective decisions. Further enlargement of the EU has extended these agreed standards to additional countries, who have gained access to the common mechanisms for consultation and information sharing. A wide range of documents on European arms export controls and embargoes can be found here.

The EU has also taken on a stronger and more coherent role in combatting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In 2003, the Council adopted a WMD Strategy and a WMD Action Plan.

Information on the EU's role in providing non-proliferation and WMD related disarmament assistance is available here.



Important documents for EU acceding countries

This provides a short overview with Hyperlinks to the corresponding documents. More information can be found on the webpage of the European Commission's DG Trade on dual-use export controls, the European Commission's Common Foreign & Security Policy site, the Council of the European Union - Security-related export controls website (go to: Policy > Foreign Policy > Security-related export controls) or the related pages of the SIPRI website.



General documents:



Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

  • Basic Principles for an EU Strategy Against Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, 10 June 2003 (pdf).
  • Action Plan for the Implementation of the Basic Principles for an EU Strategy Against Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, 10 June 2003 (pdf).
  • 'A secure Europe in a better world’, 20 June 2003 (pdf).
  • Common Position on the universalisation and reinforcement of multilateral agreements in the field of non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and means of delivery, 11 November 2003 (pdf).
  • EU policy regarding the management of non-proliferation in the context of its relationships with third countries, 19 November 2003 (pdf).
  • EU Security Strategy, 12 December 2003 (pdf).
  • EU Strategy Against Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (PDF) policy regarding the management of non-proliferation in the context of its relationships with third countries, 12 December 2003 (pdf).

    more details...



Small Arms and Light Weapons



Dual Use



EU Arms embargos



Arms Brokering

  • Council Common Position 2003/468/CFSP of 23 June 2003 (pdf) on the control of arms brokering.

    more details...


Return to top

Any reproduction of text and data is authorized only by permission, SIPRI 2007.

Search