Promising Much but Delivering Little? Recent Trends and Developments in EU Arms Export Controls

This paper examines the attempts to coordinate and converge the arms export control policies of EU member states, principally via the 1998 EU Code of Conduct and 2008 EU Common Position. The article argues that this process - ongoing since the early 1990s - may be grinding to a halt. The issue is examined via an examination of the three rationales which originally drove these efforts: the application of human security principles to arms export controls; the creation of a level playing-field in arms export controls; and the promotion of a free market in military goods within the EU. In all areas, declining arms procurement budgets, disagreements over the competencies of different EU bodies, and efforts to negotiate an international Arms Trade Treaty have created countervailing pressures. These pressures have slowed the process of coordination and convergence in arms export control policies and even reversed previous gains in these areas.