As part of the “Defence Readiness Omnibus’ presented in June 2025, i.e. a deregulation package for the armament sector, the European Commission is proposing to “simplify” the EU directive for arms exports inside the EU, in short the ‘Transfers directive’. A first revision of this directive had been conducted in 2016, already problematic in several respects as we warned at the time. The current revision represents a further step towards the deregulation of arms transfers, with potentially significant impacts on the control of exports outside the EU.
Read our Policy Briefing Note for more information on the dangerous proposals put on the table by the European Commission, and which could be even worsened by the Euro-parliamentarians negotiating with the Member States (EU Council).
We urge EU decision-makers to reject all proposed changes to the Transfer directive, as they constitute another attempt by the European Commission to de facto take over the EU arms export licensing process and will result in a loss of control on arms exports by Member States. ENAAT members constantly denounce the inadequacies of national arms export control systems; but that does not mean that one should give the European Commission a blank cheque either, particularly given its pro-industry stance in general and its symbiotic relationship with the arms industry in particular.