EU project on strengthening export controls of dual-use goods
The Pilot Project Reinforcing EU Cooperative Threat Reduction Programmes: Community action in support of the EU Strategy Against Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, was established in 2004 at the initiative of the European Parliament and implemented by SIPRI. The project included a research component (a study of how best to provide support to the non-proliferation of WMD in the next financial perspective 2007-2013 in a range of areas, including dual-use export controls); presentation of the results at an international conference in Brussels in December 2005; and a Field Validation Exercise conducted in 2005/2006 to explore the potential for future Community actions in one issue area: national dual-use export controls of three countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro (in the final phase of the project, four countries due to the separation of Serbia and Montenegro into two independent states).
This first EU Pilot Project (EUPP 2004) focused on four areas, which were determined in co-operation with the responsible authorities in the partner countries: licensing, industry outreach, the role of customs in export control, and investigating/prosecuting export control violations. In each of the 3 (4) countries a regional approach was combined with country-specific events. The range of activities included needs assessment visits, country-specific and regional seminars/workshops (held both in-country and in EU Member States), study visits to EU Member States, training courses, and sponsorship of participation in other EU activities and in activities organized by third parties.
Since 2006, a number of in-country and regional events were held in South East Europe in the framework of the follow-on EU Pilot Projects (EUPP 05 and 06) implemented by the German Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA), in co-operation with SIPRI.
The EU Pilot Projects were concluded in October 2008, and transitioned into the Long Term Programme ‘EU Cooperation in Export Control’ (LTP), also implemented by BAFA. SIPRI has contributed in particular to the enforcement part of the EU LTP activities in South East Europe in an advisory/expert capacity. Since 2010, SIPRI’s Export Control Project also coordinates LTP activities in a regional project manager capacity: Dr. Sibylle Bauer in South East Asia and Ivana Micic in South East Europe. Aaron Dunne is a senior customs advisor to the LTP, with a regional focus on the UAE.
