Publications

EU publications

Opacity and ethical shortfalls in first EDF projects: new report by Centre Delas & ENAAT

2025 – Pere Brunet

In this report, the Center Delàs d’Estudis per la Pau and the European Network Against Arms Trade (ENAAT) highlight the opacity of the projects benefiting from the first round of financing of the European Defense Fund. This research discuss transparency issues during the Mid-Term review of the EDF projects funded under the 2021 Call of the European Comission (EC), focusing on a representative sample of 6 projects. The investigation shows that the problematic aspects already detected in the initial PADR and EDIDP calls have not improved, being as questionable and controversial as in their day, and even with a tendency to worsen. Some of the problems identified are: lack of transparency in the application of EU ethical guidelines; lack of transparency in the project review process; lack of transparency in technical aspects that can generate situations that are ethically unacceptable and contrary to international law; or lack of control in the use of unmanned systems that use AI technologies.

 

Read the press release in Spanish, English and French

Access the full report and its executive summary in English and Spanish here

From war lobby to war economy

2023 – Mark Akkerman and Chloé Maulewaeter

The report shows that the largest EU arms companies and major lobby organisations have had hundreds of meetings with the European Commission and Members of the European Parliament in the last decade. The European Commission has established a new Directorate-General for the Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS), which functions as a service provider for the arms industry. 

One of the most important issues for arms companies is their access to private finance. The industry has been lobbying relentlessly against its exclusion in investors’ ESG policies and the proposed label of ‘socially unsustainable’ in the EU social taxonomy. While the military sector contributes significantly to GHG emissions and environmental damage, the industry seeks recognition of the relationship it claims exists between security and sustainability.

These lobby efforts and close ties with policy-makers bear fruit, with ongoing processes of allocating more money to arms production, introducing new support instruments and calls for the industry’s access to sustainable finance being made by all EU institutions and main European leaders. 

Read the full report in English. Spanish version to come soon

Read the executive summary in English, French, German, Dutch

Fanning the flames

2022 – Mark Akkerman, Pere Brunet, Andrew Feinstein, Tony Fortin, Angela Hegarty, Niamh Ní Bhriain, Joaquín Rodriguez Alvarez, Laëtitia Sédou, Alix Smidman, Josephine Valeske

This report reveals how the EU’s first defence programmes worth almost €600 million are marred in conflicts of interest, corruption allegations, and fall significantly short of meeting the most basic ethical and legal standards when developing the next generation of weaponry which could radically change the way to conduct war.  The same pattern is to be expected with the €8 billion-worth European Defence Fund for 2021-2027.

Read the Full Report in English.

Read the Executive Summary in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

A militarised Union – Understanding and confronting the militarisation of the European Union

2021 – Ordered and funded by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Brussels Office.
Ainhoa Ruiz, Bram Vranken, Francesco Vignarca, Jordi Calvo, Laetitia Sédou, Wendela de Vries.

Although European governments claim not to export arms to countries at war or those violating human rights, European arms are sold all over the world with very few restrictions. European weapons are often exported to dictatorships or to countries at war. Groups from the European Network Against Arms Trade are discovering and exposing these deals.

Read in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish

Other Publications

•Position paper: The European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP), another step towards arms race and exports deregulation (April 2025) available in English

•Factsheet: ‘War Profiteers’: Top 15 profits and revenues in 2022 (2023) available in English 

• Factsheet: How the EU is funding arms dealers and corrupt corporations (2022) available in English, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian and Spanish

• Factsheet: Who profits from the EU Defence Fund (2021) in English and French,

• What is the European Defence Fund? ENAAT fact-sheet (April 2019) in English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish

• ENAAT Position paper: MEPs must critically scrutinize EU funding to military Research & Development (12.12.2017) English

• Stop Wapenhandel factsheet European money for the arms industry (05.2017) English

• Factsheet 1: Why the Preparatory Action on Defence Research will not help improve European Defence Capabilities (13.10.2016) – English

• Factsheet 2: Why the Preparatory Action on Defence Research is a waste of EU public money and a form of subsidy to the arms industry (13.10.2016) – English

• Factsheet 3: Why the Preparatory Action on Defence Research is a blank cheque to the profit of national arms industry, not of EU interests (13.10.2016) – English

• Factsheet 4: Alternative spending to the PA on Defence Research can also save growth and jobs and better promote peace (13.10.2016) – English

• ENAAT Position paper on the PADR: Why the EU should not subsidize military research (30.08.3016) – English

• Reply EC Bienkowska to ENAAT letter (25.11.2016)

• ENAAT letter to Bienkowska on GoP (23.05.2016)

 
 

Members publications

The Delàs Center for Peace Studies, in collaboration with ENAAT
Europe is the second most militarized region in the world, with a military budget that surpasses China’s and is three times that of Russia. Additionally, the EU’s budget for security and defense has tripled over the past two decades, reaching 19.5 billion euros in the current framework program. (September 2024)

 

  • Campaign Against Arms Trade – Open? The UK’s secret arms sales
    What is the total value of the UK arms trade? How much profit does the UK make selling weapons around the world each year to different countries? The UK government claims to have the most ‘rigorous and robust’ arms export controls in the world, but the truth is, it doesn’t record enough information on arms sales to answer even these basic questions. Published 2021.

 

  • CDRPC/Observatoire des armements – Contrôle des ventes d’armes: quel rôle pour les parlementaires?
    Nouvelle étude comparative sur le contrôle parlementaire des exportations d’armes en Europe qui tente de répondre à cette question: instaurer davantage de transparence et de démocratie dans le domaine du contrôle des exportations d’armes a-t-il un impact sur les décisions de ventes d’armes? (in French. Published 2021)

 

  • Centre Delas – Security? Whose security? Military security not neutral
    We are facing a new, wide and deep process of militarization, with increasing military budgets, arms manufacturing and an evergrowing military industry that now also expands its reach to borders and social control. But despite the hegemonic discourse, this does not respond to our security needs nor to the challenges our modern, global, interdependent and diverse society faces nowadays.

 

  • SPAS – The Swedish arms trade (english abstract from  Den Svenska vapenexporten)
    This book on Sweden’s arms exports outlines the concepts of how the trade works and who decides. But it also tells about the scandals and the consequences. How artists and the monarchy are used for marketing. And how peaceful Sweden became one of the largest arms exporters per capita in the world. Published 2016.

 

  • Stop Fuelling War – La militarisation de la police et du maintien de l’ordre en France Ces dernières années, les forces de l’ordre (FDO) françaises se sont vues confier davantage d’équipements assimilables à des équipements militaires. La prédominance de la notion d’insécurité dans le débat public et les politiques gouvernementales s’est accompagnée d’une militarisation croissante du maintien de l’ordre en France. La militarisation implique nécessairement une hausse de la violence. Published 2021.

 

 

  • Urgewald – Rheinmetall – Profit first
    Krisenzeiten sind Boomzeiten für die Rüstungsindustrie. Auch der größte in Deutschland ansässige Rüstungskonzern Rheinmetall profitiert von weltweiten militärischen Auseinandersetzungen und den steigenden staatlichen Rüstungsbudgets im In- und Ausland. (in German. Published 2021)