The EU: A key player in the fight against illicit SALW

The European Union (EU) presented on June 30, 2006 a comprehensive overview of its activities to support the fight against illicit small arms and light weapons during the Conference to Review Progress Made in the Implementation of the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, which is taking place in New York from 26 June to 7 July.

Representatives from the European Presidency (Austria), the Council Secretariat / Office of the Personal Representative of the High Representative for non-proliferation, the European Commission and the European Parliament presented to an audience of governments, international organisations and experts in the field of SALW, the activities and policies of the EU in the area of Small Arms and Light Weapons.

Well aware of the magnitude of the threats posed by SALW, the EU has been playing a pro-active role throughout the years as a donor and a policy advocate in this field. Following consistent policy priorities, the EU has a wide range of instruments at its disposal. These include the European Community budget, the European Development Fund, the Common Foreign and Security Policy, including the missions carried out under the European Defence and Security Policy, the political action led by the EU Presidency and the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy as well as the political, budgetary and legislative role played by the European Parliament and the bilateral work carried out by individual Member States.

Since 1999, when the Council adopted a Joint Action on the European Union's contribution to combating the destabilising accumulation and spread of small arms and light weapons, around € 14.5 million ($18.4 million) of EU Common Foreign and Security Policy funds have been committed through decisions implementing this Council Joint Action. Projects have been implemented in South Eastern Europe, Latin America, South Eastern Asia and Eastern Europe.

In addition to bilateral contributions from Member States, the European Community and the European Development Fund have allocated some €96 ($122) million for actions undertaken to deal with the excessive and destabilising accumulation of small arms and light weapons in the period from 2003 to the present.

On the political front, the European Council adopted on 15-16 December 2005 an EU Strategy to combat illicit accumulation and trafficking of Small Arms and Light Weapons and their ammunition which sets political and geographical priorities. The Strategy will further enhance consistency among EU policies, while exploiting fully the means available to the EU at multilateral and regional levels, inside the European Union and through its external relations.

For its part the European Parliament has recently adopted a resolution on SALW and has financed independent research on EU Action in the area of SALW, carried out by UNIDIR.

Finally, the Joint Research Center of the European Commission presented ground-breaking technologies enabling easy and efficient marking and tracing of firearms as well as the detection of plastic landmines.

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• ECOWAS-EU Joint Declaration on Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) (24/4/2007)
• EU Presidency Statement - Conventional Weapons (12/10/2006)
• EU Presidency Statement - UN Disarmament Commission (10/4/2006)
• EU Presidency Statement - UN Security Council Open Debate on Small Arms (20/3/2006)