Activists protest presence of war criminals at European conference

Today, arms industry representatives and European policy makers are meeting at the European Defence Agency’s annual conference: “Taking European Defence Cooperation to the Next Level”. A Freedom of Information request filed by the Belgian NGO Vredesactie shows that more than 230 arms company representatives received an invitation to the conference. A dozen NGOs and peace organisations were not welcome to the conference due to “space constraints”, according to an email from the European Defence Agency.

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OSDE 2026

2 June 2026

Major Beneficiaries of EDF and ASAP.     Companies European Defence Fund (EDF) After the first three years of the EDF, about a thousand different entities (companies, research institutes, universities, government agencies and a few CSOs) have received funding. It is clear that a large portion of the money goes to a small set of large arms companies. This is exacerbated by the fact that many of these companies own (parts) of other beneficiaries, in the form of takeovers, joint ventures, subsidiaries or major shareholder ownership. With this in mind, almost a quarter of the funding ends up

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09/06 at 6pm: “Breaking the consensus on EU funding for rearmamament” online conference

21 May 2026

ENAAT, GDAMS & StopReArmEurope invite you to an Interactive Online Conference***A militarised garden: Breaking the consensus on EU funding for rearmament * June 9 2026 at 18:00 CEST The session will begin from a practical observation: Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) who challenge the current policy direction -particularly the rapid growth in certain spending priorities- represent a small minority, which limits their influence. Against this backdrop, the discussion will move beyond simple opposition and instead focus on more constructive and strategic exchange, structures around two main pillars:1) Understanding the MEPs’ perspective:Why do many MEPs feel that there

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Civil society calls on policymakers to prevent the weakening of arms exports control

8 May 2026

Today, +25 civil society organisations urge decision makers to prevent arms export control systems from being weakened under the pretext of ‘simplification’ and ‘efficiency’. The negotiations on the EU omnibus package relating to defence are well advanced and about to conclude, including on the proposals modifying the Transfer directive regulating intra-EU arms exports. Weapons and military technology cannot be sold like toys or cans of beans, and EU governments are the ones responsible for ensuring compliance with European and international law, in particular the EU Common position on arms exports, the Arms Trade Treaty and the Convention on

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