Armament Cooperation within the European UnionThe Council of Ministers is the only EU body to make decisions concerning armament issues. Therefore, the EU as such does not play any independent role in managing arms transfers into or out of member states. Article 223 of the Treaty of Rome clarifies that arms production and trade are exempted from any common European regulations. No subsequent EU agreement has changed this status. Nevertheless, the EU has become an important forum in which member states discuss national policies and multilateral cooperation in areas related to arms transfers. A thematic overview of the legal and political results of this cooperation is listed on our EU Theme Page. The two major working groups under the Council of Ministers in which member states discuss these matters, are the working group on conventional arms (COARM) and the working group on armaments policy (POLARM). COARM plays the central role in the discussion on arms transfer issues within the EU and is dealing with most issues covered by the Code of Conduct. In this working group most of the information is shared and COARM produces the annual report under provision 8 of the Code of Conduct. POLARM has examined whether the trade in military equipment between member
states could be simplified. A central issue here are multilateral arrangements
that exchange technology and multinational defence industrial projects among EU
members. |
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