Arms Industry

New publication from ENAAT now available in 7 languagesIn 2017, the EU approved the funding of military research and the development of new arms and technologies, breaking the red line that the EU should not fund military activities with the community budget. Over half a billion Euros went to military research and development (R&D) through two precursor programmes: the Preparatory Action for Defence Research (PADR), which funds joint military research projects, and the European Defence Industrial Development Program (EDIDP), which ...
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European ambitions towards closer cooperation within the Common Security and Defence Policy have been given a boost in the wake of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, while the reaction to the war was described in Germany as a ‘turning point’, the effects of which are still hard to predict. The announcement by the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD) of a special fund of 100 billion euros for the Bundeswehr has already brought with it a massive shift in the Foreign and Security Policy of the EU. The general trend...
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Within the European Union, Council Common Position 2008/944/CFSP of 8 December 2008 defining common rules governing control of exports of military technology and equipment is based on criteria that are intended to assess the countries of destination for the respective arms based on respect for human rights and international law, conflict prevention, democracy, regional stability and peace-keeping. As a rule, these considerations take precedence over the economic and industrial arguments that arms-exporting Member ...
read more "Arms Production and Employment: Discourse, Scale and Methodological Challenges"
New comic book in English, German and FrenchAbout the book It is impossible to determine the number of firearms in circulation in the world, but one thing is certain: there have never been so many! According to recent estimates, there are now more than one billion firearms in existence. And if you consider the number of guns leaving the arsenals each day, this flow is not about to decrease. European states bear a great share of responsibility for this situation. Weapons made in Europe are used to kill, harm and displace people around the globe. While ...
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An open letter to the government

Jean-Pierre Maulny
The French army and the far right***Version française ci-dessous*** A recent open letter from former military leadership to the French government may not point to the risk of a military coup, but it does bear witness to the dangerous trivialisation of a political discourse based on “national security and communitarianism[1]”, which marginalises certain social groups by advocating national primacy and the rejection of immigration. Even though its rough edges have been smoothed out by Marine Le Pen, this discourse remains foundational to the far right ...
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A militarised Union

Ainhoa Ruiz, Bram Vranken, Francesco Vignarca, Jordi Calvo, Laëtitia Sédou, Wendela de Vries
Understanding and confronting the militarisation of the European UnionAbout the book  How is the European Union (EU) preparing itself for the challenges that lie ahead? How will it deal with the climate, economic and social crises we are facing? What steps is it taking to tackle the root causes of these crises? Answers to these questions are vital to those living within and outside the EU. The EU’s priorities and the subsequent allocation of political attention, personnel and financial resources matter a great deal. Disturbingly, the EU and its Member States have ...
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Shadow report from the Observatoire des armementsThe first part of this report will investigate the parliamentary oversight systems of three European countries: the Netherlands, Germany and the UK. Germany and the UK are interesting studies, being arms exporters of a comparable size to France. Though we intend to describe how the institutions in these countries operate, we primarily want to focus on understanding the place of arms sales in civic and political debate, hence the benefit of choosing countries of similar size. The Netherlands, for its part, ...
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Interview with Tony FortinYou have just published your shadow report on the parliamentary oversight of arms exports in France, Germany, the UK and the Netherlands. What struck you most when comparing the procedures in place and what can we learn from this to advance the restriction of arms exports? What might seem obvious, but is worth repeating, is that social change started with the mobilisation of civil society in Europe. First there were the anti-militarist peace movements of the 1970s and 1980s which led to other ...
read more "«We need to set aside our instinct to take action at national level»"
New report on arms export control in Western Europe publishedBrussels, 30 March 2021. Global spending on arms and armaments continues to rise, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). At the same time, effective oversight and transparency mechanisms are lacking. The independent French armaments observatory Observatoire des armements has compiled a report on parliamentary oversight of arms exports in Western Europe, on behalf of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Brussels Office. The report identifies the ...
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Hooked on weapons exports

Jahanzeb Hussain, Editor at Ricochet Media
Forward! The march, the burden and the desert, weariness and anger. ~Arthur Rimbaud, “A Season in Hell”   The French defence industry has become addicted to arms exports as part of a national strategy to remain a global military player. To feed this addiction, France is effectively allowing undemocratic countries in the Middle East and elsewhere to purchase French diplomatic silence and political complicity for their crimes.   ***Version française ci-dessous***   While it is common knowledge that the Middle East has been a near-permanent...
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