Arms export: implementation of Common Position 2008/944/CFSP (debate)
Speaker: Hannah NEUMANN (Germany, Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance / Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)
Date: 2020-09-14

  Hannah Neumann,  rapporteur. – Madam President, arms are not like any other export goods, because far too often they are used to suppress opposition or to kill civilians. And that is why it’s so important that once a year we discuss EU arms exports in this Parliament, and that’s also why it’s so important that we use this report to improve our way to control where arms end up in this world. And that’s why I decided to use my report to focus on two things: on transparency and on convergence. In our report we all together reached quite a lot. For example, we are calling on the European External Action Service to actually translate these 500 pages of numbers and columns into an online-searchable database so that public oversight is actually possible.
We also ask the European External Action Service to build up a joint EU-level end-user control, rather than forcing 27 Member States to do like a semi-functional system, and we have a number of other suggestions on which we reached broad consensus in our negotiations. And I think we can be very proud, because they help us to better scrutinise and regulate EU arms exports. But as proud as we all can be, this doesn’t solve the main problem, and the main problem is that we have one common position on arms export of the EU, but we have 27 national interpretations, 27 export systems, and an increasing divergence in actual exports of Member States. And the more we work together in arms production, the more this will be a problem ˗ the more this will be a problem for democratic control and oversight, because if Member States produce arms together, who actually decides over the exports? Is it the Member State that puts in the most parts? Is it the Member State that puts in the last screw? Can one block all? Do you need to vouch your rights for democratic control before you can join? This is not very clear. And the conflict between France and Germany last year over arms exports to Saudi Arabia clearly showed how easily this can create tensions.
But this divergence is also a problem for a common EU foreign and security policy. We were also happy about the good results of the Berlin Conference earlier this year. We even set up an EU mission in the Mediterranean to enforce the arms embargo against Libya, and this very same mission reported a violation of the arms embargo by Turkey and the UAE, yet EU Member States still supply Turkey, the UAE and all the other countries breaking this arms embargo with weapons, and some of these weapons end up with Sarraj, others end up with Haftar, all fuelling the violence. And Mr Borrell, I really wouldn’t want to be in your shoes trying to build a consistent EU foreign policy on that mess.
And then, my dear colleagues from EPP, there’s the arms industry: the arms industry that already today complains that all these national regulations make cooperation super difficult, that arms export decisions are not reliable and that they cannot do business that way. And to be frank, I totally get their point. And dear colleagues, all these examples clearly show that if we want to do joint arms production, we need to do joint arms export control as one EU. What I really don’t understand is why the Commission, the Member States and parts of this Parliament are pushing so much for an internal defence market for joint arms production ˗ even putting money into it ˗ and at the same time, the very same people refuse to even discuss an EU-level involvement in democratic oversight and export control and thereby undermine what they want to reach: a European defence union and strategic autonomy of the European Union.
I want to thank all my shadows for the very fierce and fair debates we had in the negotiations. We’ve reached a lot, but on this point we didn’t reach consensus, and that’s why I decided to bring it to the parliamentary debate today. I’m very much looking forward to the discussion.