Data source: Official Journal of the European Union annual reports on the European Union Code of Conduct on Arms Exports
EU Export Data Browser
Do these figures show the value of exported goods?
Some EU member states publish the value of exported goods, while others publish the value that licence-holders are allowed to export. Here we show a hybrid of these two values.
Most EU countries publish the value of weapons they have exported, that is, the value of the goods that have actually been delivered to destination countries. Others only publish the value of export licences they have approved, this is the amount that licence holders are allowed to export. For these countries there's no way to tell the value of goods that were exported.
In this application you can choose to see the export value, the licence value, or a “hybrid” value which consists of actual export values for those countries that provide them, plus the value of licences for those that do not. For states that publish both values, our hybrid figure uses the value of their exports.
Use the “Metric” controls on the overview to select the values you want to see.
The member states that only publish licence values are as follows;
- Belgium
- Cyprus
- Germany
- Malta
- United Kingdom
Where does this data come from?
From the Official Journal of the European Union annual reports on the European Union Code of Conduct on Arms Exports.
The European Union Council Working Party on Conventional Arms Exports (COARM) publishes annual reports which include statistics on EU member states' arms exports.
Since 2019 the data is also available via an interactive database.
Why are the values of licences from France so high?
Since 2014, France counts the value of export licences in a different way to other EU member states.
The value of goods approved for export by France since 2014 appears artificially high due to a change in French export licensing procedures. The value of exported goods, or our “hybrid” value is a better metric for comparison between member states.
Why are EU arms exports increasing so much?
EU arms sales have gone up, but the EU itself has also grown
While the value of EU arms sales is increasing, it is important also to take into account that 11 new countries have joined the EU since 1998 when data collection began.
What do the category names like “ML1”, “ML10”, and so on mean?
These are categories of goods defined in the Common Military List of The European Union.
These are codes defined by the European Union that member states use to classify military goods for export.
A full list of categories and descriptions can be seen on the category page.
The original rating definitions are available in the Common Military List Of The European Union.
Where can I ask further questions about this data?
Email [email protected] with any questions about the data.
Can I re-use, re-publish or analyse this data?
Yes, the raw data is available on GitHub and is covered by a permissive licence.
We publish our raw EU export data annually on GitHub.
The data is implicitly covered by the Commission Decision of 12 December 2011 on the reuse of Commission documents which requires attribution and explicitly permits non-commercial reuse and distribution.
Where can journalists obtain more information or a quote to accompany a story about this data?
Email [email protected] for any media-related queries.