EU Statement: The role of industry – Arms Trade Treaty – Ninth Conference of State Parties, Geneva, 21-25 August 2023
Madam President,
I am honored to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.
The candidate countries Türkiye, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Republic of Moldova and Bosnia and Herzegovina[1] as well as the potential candidate country Georgia, the EFTA country Norway, member of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this statement.
The EU fully shares the President’s recognition of the importance of industry and private sector’s participation in ATT process, which is crucial to success of the Treaty, and thanks the Republic of Korea for putting the topic high on the agenda. We agree that the ATT can facilitate greater convergence of national legislations, helping to close loopholes and eradicate evasion of controls. The ATT can set standards for all stakeholders in the international arms trade. Both industry and the private sector have distinct responsibilities and need to take specific measures to ensure that transfers are made responsibly. To that end, open and proactive approaches by governments to their domestic private sector, transparency and predictability of procedures and export policies, clarity of legislation, and information sharing, should be developed, supported and promoted nationally and internationally under the ATT umbrella.
The EU appreciates the President’s work on the recommendations contained in its working paper, fully supports their inclusion in CSP9 recommendations and looks forward to taking them up in future working cycles. The EU also welcomes the joint working paper by Austria, Ireland, and Mexico on this theme, and looks forward to discussing it in further details.
In reference to the list of possible documents for ensuring industry compliance with national control systems, the EU appreciates the inclusion of two EU documents relating to dual-use items, within the current list. For possible future development of references, we wish to underline the value of public User’s Guide to the EU Council Common Position 2008/944/CFSP defining common rules governing the control of exports of military technology and equipment. While the User’s Guide is intended to help Member States apply the Common Position and is intended for use primarily by export licensing officials, it is also highly relevant for wider stakeholders including exporters, helping to facilitate their own risk assessment.
Thank you, Madam President.
—
[1] North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
Source: Press and information team of the EU Delegation to the UN in Geneva