Madame Co-Chairs,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

The Candidate Countries the Republic of North Macedonia[*], Montenegro* and Albania* and the EFTA countries Iceland and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, as well as Georgia align themselves with this statement.

The EU supports the principles of cooperation, responsibility, and transparency in the international arms trade, enshrined in the Arms Trade Treaty. Transparency and reporting are key elements leading to confidence building among States and enabling accountability and scrutiny for arms export decisions taken by national authorities. Reporting on arms exports and imports represents one of the cornerstone obligations of the ATT. We therefore reiterate our call on all States Parties to fulfill their reporting obligations in a timely and transparent manner. Without public reporting, States Parties undermine the effectiveness of the Treaty. We regret the fact that China, has decided not to make its initial report under the ATT publically available. We call on China to reconsider this decision, in the spirit of the ATT.

The long trend of decreasing reporting rates is highly regrettable and alarming. We hope to see better figures this year and would like to take the opportunity to draw attention to the upcoming deadline for submitting the annual report for 2021. We commend all States Parties that have already filed their annual report for 2021 and encourage others to follow suit in a timely manner, and to share their reports publicly.

There are many reasons for the current low reporting rate, including due to a lack of capacity and resources, internal coordination challenges, and difficulties in conducting technical assessments. While it is important to discuss these challenges and find practical ways to overcome them, reporting is a fundamental obligation for States Parties that must be adhered to. The EU stands ready to assist, and in this regard, we recall that the EU ATT Outreach Program, has entered into a Third Phase. Also, the EU supports the ATT Secretariat in assisting States Parties in need. Strengthening national reporting capabilities and making national reporting procedures more efficient, in line with the provisions of the Treaty, is of great importance. States in need are also encouraged to make good use of the Voluntary Trust Fund for the purpose of establishing or improving their reporting capabilities.

The EU adopted its 23rd Annual Report on Arms Exports on 28 September 2021, informing in detail on arms sales authorised by EU Member States in 2020. It is the fastest annual report release until to date, within 9 months of the end of the reporting year. In 2020, the EEAS launched a searchable online database containing the annual arms export data of all EU Member States since 2013. The database offers various information graphics to all those interested in further details. It allows stakeholders and interested members of the public to consult and analyse the data on Member States’ arms exports in a user-friendly manner. The EU annual report as well as the database display the number and value of authorized export licenses for all destination countries, the value of actual exports, the type of military technology involved, the number of denials per type of military technology and destination country, and the criteria that were invoked as the reason for the denial. All the information is publicly available, accessible to all. The EU will be making a presentation of this database to the Working Group on Transparency, as requested by the co-chairs of the Working Group. In that regard, we also look forward to discussing the establishment of such functionality at the ATT level.

We reaffirm our commitment to transparency in international arms trade. In this regard, we have taken a number of concrete measures in order to facilitate correct, coherent and timely reporting on Member Sates’ arms exports. We call on all States Parties to opt for public reporting, which clearly increases the relevance of the reports and facilitates accountability for export decisions.

We are grateful to the ATT Secretariat for their continued updates on the number of Initial and Annual Reports, which help us to track progress.

Thank you, Madame Co-Chairs

[*] The Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.