BAFA organises Flash Session on keeping track with technological developments in the field of arms trade control

01/06/2021
Activity description

On 1 June 2021, BAFA carried out the first of a series of three Flash Sessions on specific challenges of arms trade controls within the framework of the EU COARM V Project. Due to the on-going Covid-19 pandemic, the event was organized as an online activity and all participating partner countries within the EU COARM V Project were invited.

The first Flash Session dealt in particular with technical developments in arms and military goods in recent years and ways to keep track and respond to them in order to ensure efficient arms trade controls.

Project description

This activity is part of the fifth phase of a project implemented by BAFA since 2010, on the promotion of effective arms export controls, and is based on EU Council Decision 2020/1464/CFSP. The project aims at promoting improved controls on arms transfers in third countries, in accordance with the principles set out in Common Position 2008/944/CFSP and in the ATT, and to support third countries’ efforts, at national and regional levels, to render trade in conventional weapons more responsible and transparent, and to mitigate the risk of arms diversion to unauthorized users. As part of this project, BAFA is tasked with assisting third countries in drafting, updating and implementing legislative and administrative measures to establish an effective system of conventional arms export controls, and with training licensing and enforcement officers responsible for the implementation and enforcement of arms transfer controls. Activities also include conducting outreach to third countries’ national arms industries to ensure compliance with arms control regulations and promoting transparency and responsibility in the arms trade. Encouraging those beneficiary countries that have not taken any steps towards accession to the ATT to join the ATT, and encouraging signatories of the ATT to ratify it, are also objectives of this outreach project. Furthermore, the project draws attention to the risks of arms diversion as well as to mitigation measures to prevent such diversion, both on the part of exporting and importing states.

Type of Activity
Institutional capacity-building
Focus of Activity
Control list
Transfer controls
Partners
Albania
Algeria
Armenia
Georgia
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Lebanon
Moldova
Montenegro
North Macedonia
Serbia
Tunisia
Ukraine
Implementers
German Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA)
Donors
European Union (EU)
Contact Details
Contact Person
Ruxandra Ullrich, Senior Project Manager
Organization
Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA)
Address
Division 226 / Outreach Management, Frankfurter Strasse 29-35 65760, Eschborn
Phone
+49 6196 908 2148
Fax
+49 6196 908 2148