Illicit weapons and ammunition – global reporting mechanism

KEY POINTS

Exporting military technology and equipment

The 2008 common position sets eight criteria for assessing export applications for military technology and equipment included on the EU’s common military list.

Small arms and light weapons

• The illicit transfer of SALW contributes to a worsening of terrorism and organised crime and is a major factor in triggering and spreading conflicts, as well as contributing to the collapse of governments.
• The EU has supported iTrace to monitor the movement of illicit SALW; an integral part of solving these problems.

iTrace

• The EU first provided funding for iTrace with Decision 2013/698/CFSP (see summary).
• This decision supports the EU strategy to combat illicit accumulation and trafficking of SALW and their ammunition.
• The iTrace project is to be implemented by the non-governmental organisation Conflict Armament Research (CAR) under the responsibility of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
• The High Representative reports on the implementation process to the Council of the European Union, while the European Commission reports on the financial aspects.
• The EU has renewed its support for the different phases of the project through subsequent decisions, including most recently the 2023 decision on iTrace V, as requested by the EU global strategy.

iTrace V

• The iTrace V project has been allocated €6.2 million from the EU budget. CAR and the German Federal Foreign Office will cover additional costs.
• It has a number of objectives including:
  • continuing to maintain and enhance iTrace to provide policymakers, arms control experts and arms export control authorities with relevant information to develop effective, evidence-based strategies and projects against the spread of illicit SALW;
  • training and mentoring national authorities in conflict-affected countries to develop sustainable national illicit conventional arms identification and tracing capacity, and to encourage sustained cooperation with the iTrace project;
  • increasing the frequency and duration of in-field research into SALW illegally circulating in conflict-affected countries;
  • tailoring support to EU Member State arms export control authorities and arms control policymakers;
  • increasing awareness on the findings of the project;
  • providing key policy issue reports, drawn from the data generated by field investigations and presented on the iTrace system, about specific areas deserving international attention;
  • the continued tracing of conventional arms and their ammunition (with the cooperation of Member States and non-EU countries) to find out how they end up in the hands of unauthorised users.