Under the EU's agreed common criteria on arms exports, known as the Luxembourg and Lisbon criteria, member states are encouraged, in the framework of the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy, to inform and consult each other increasingly on matters of arms export control policy. The ongoing process is being used to assist the development of a common approach leading to a harmonisation of national policies, not least with respect to the implementation of arms embargoes. Ireland's input to the process consistently reflects our overriding objective in the field of arms exports, namely the promotion of restraint and responsibility in transfers of conventional arms and of technologies for military use.
In the framework of the common foreign and security policy, EU arms embargoes have been evolving and developing. Prior to the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty on European Union on 1 November 1993, EU arms embargoes were usually introduced by way of Council Declarations and implementation was effectively a matter for individual member states. Under the Common Foreign and Security Policy, EU arms embargoes are adopted as common positions of the Council and, in accordance with Article J.2.2 of the Treaty, member states ensure that their national policies conform to the common positions. In addition, the EU endeavours to specify the categories of arms covered, at Union level, by UN arms embargoes where these are non-specific and by embargoes imposed directly by the Union. This is an effort to facilitate a more uniform implementation by member states of EU embargoes.
In the case of the two most recent EU embargoes adopted by the Council, those on arms exports to the former Yugoslavia and to Afghanistan, the provisions expressly state that the embargoes cover contracts entered into prior to the entry into force of the embargo. These developments reflect both the determination of the EU to ensure that arms embargoes are made as effective as possible, and also the strengthening of the legal basis, under the Treaty, for the implementation of embargoes.
