EU Statement

Treaty Implementation

Arms Trade Treaty

Eleventh Conference of State Parties

Geneva, 25-29 August 2025

Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States. 

The candidate countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania, Republic of Moldova[1] and Georgia, as well as the EFTA countries Iceland and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this statement. 

Let me start by reiterating our strong conviction that the ATT must be implemented in itsentirety to achieve its goals. 

EU MemberStates are legally bound under the EU Common Position 2008/944 on arms exports to assess licence applications for the export of conventional arms against eight criteria. They are in line with the ATT, and ATT compliance is specifically mentioned in the very first of these criteria. Following the review of the EU Common Position, the document was amended on 14 April 2025 to further align the practice of arms exports licensing in the EU with the ATT language. As an example, gender-based violence (GBV) was added among the serious violations of human rights that justify denial of a license. A license can be also denied if there is a risk that military equipment and technology exported from EU Member States can not only be used for, but also facilitate, violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. This was done to implement terms defined by the ATT community and adopted and endorsed by Conferences of States Parties. Notably, these additions now apply to exports of all goods and technology on the EU Common Military List, which is significantly broader than the scope of application of the ATT. The EU looks forward to the future work of the ATT community, stands ready to further develop its acquis, and encourages all States Parties to build upon these achievements to strengthen their national control systems.

We would like to express appreciation to the Philippines for chairing the WGETI, as well as to Sierra Leone and Ireland for facilitating discussions in its Sub-working Groups. A well-structured exchange of views over concrete implementation questions is commendable and sets a good precedent for future work. The EU fully supports all the recommendations by the WGETI Chair’s report and wishes to add the following observations.

First, we support the work towards the recommendation to establish national control lists as similar as possible, ideally following a single taxonomy. The EU highly values the use of the EU Common Military List, which itself is a transposition of the Wassenaar Arrangement Munitions List. We benefit from its comprehensiveness (which also covers parts and components), high level of detail, and the constant work of the experts of the 42 Wassenaar Arrangement participating States on updates and explanatory notes. The alignment of national control lists is a technical necessity and not a political issue: it eliminates gaps in control and facilitates cooperation between national systems, allowing them to speak the same technical language. The EU promotes the use of the EU Common Military List among the States Parties of our outreach programme. We look forward to the ATT recognizing the value of shared taxonomy, exploring challenges, and recommending measures to effectively establish and update national control lists as closely as possible to the broad standard of Wassenaar Arrangement. Accordingly, the scope of the Treaty needs attention in order to keep it relevant to technological development and evolving security considerations. Modern warfare is performed often with weapons made out of components commercially available to general public, outside of the scope of control of national and regional systems, which evolve to keep their relevance. The EU encourages a debate among all relevant stakeholders and an actionable outcome.

Regarding the role of industry, while States are primarily responsible for the implementation of the ATT, industry actors also need clarity and a uniform understanding of the Treaty’s provisions, and often actively seek guidance from governments. Governments can also benefit from industrial and business expertise. Therefore, the EU supports the continuation of work to compile a list of reference materials and a voluntary guidance document for cooperation between industries and governments, while its scope should also benefit from addressing diversion risk assessment and mitigation, given the unique and significant role of the private sector in handling actual transfers. Relevant industry actors from the entire life cycle of arms, including logistical actors, should be involved in these discussions. 

Regarding gender-based violence and violence against women and children, the EU fully supports further works on methodology, data structure and risk assessment. We believe that the acquis of the ATT can assist in supporting States Parties in addressing GBV and violence against women and children and will prove beneficial to the application of the EU Common Position by Member States, which was recently updated to address GBV as a risk factor. We also support the idea of establishing a gender focal point or points.

Let me end by recalling the inclusive nature of the ATT debates from their very beginning, including the negotiations. The EU wishes to reiterate its commitment to an inclusive formula of deliberations in the ATT, where observers, in particular civil society and industry, are granted proper space to engage and present their valuable insights, and differences between their perspectives and views and those of States Parties should be respected. The EU itself benefits from discussion on arms transfers with civil society, inter alia through the annual COARM-NGO forum.

Thank you, Mr. President.

[1]North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.