Arms trade framework: Germany

On this blog we have reported on the new European Community (European Union) Defence Procurement Directive and Defence Transfers Directive, adopted by the European Parliament in January 2009 and December 2008 respectively.

We now suggest some further reading for those who are interested in the wider context of arms trade issues and export licenses in an international or EU context.



On 17 December 2008 the German Federal Government published its latest annual report on arms exports, Rüstungsexportbericht 2007, officially Bericht der Bundesregierung über ihre Exportpolitik für konventionelle Rüstungsgüter im Jahre 2007.

The report (157 pages including annexes) is available on the web pages of the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie (BMWi):



http://www.bmwi.de/BMWi/Redaktion/PDF/Publikationen/ruestungsexportbericht-2007,property=pdf,bereich=bmwi,sprache=de,rwb=true.pdf



For our purposes, we want to draw attention to the presentation of the international arms trade framework (page 10 to 20). The brief and clear presentation includes arms reduction, weapons embargoes, the European Union common foreign and security policy, the proposed Defence Transfers Directive, the Farnborough Agreement, the Wassenaar Arrangement, the United Nations, small arms, a proposed Arms Trade Treaty and Outreach Activities.

Governments in other EU member states may be interested in the description of the German arms export license system.


Ralf Grahn