Export Controls

Export Controls

The European Union

The SIPRI export control project seeks to raise the quality of information and awareness of the current state of national and multilateral export control systems, primarily in Europe.

The end of the cold war enabled new types of cooperation in Europe. The crisis in the Persian Gulf region that resulted from the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq pointed to the need for revisions to export controls.

During the 1990s European countries revised and updated their national control laws and regulations in light of their changing security environment as well as helping to revitalize existing multilateral export control arrangements and develop new ones.

The European Union has developed an export control system that includes a common legal basis for dual-use export control and strengthened cooperation in conventional arms export control. The process of EU enlargement is bringing a larger number of European countries into this developing export control system.