EU Lines to Take: Group of Governmental Experts on emerging technologies in the area of Lethal Autonomous Weapons System

At the outset, the EU takes this opportunity to thank Ambassador Flavio Damico of Brazil, in his capacity as the Chair, for his tremendous efforts and excellent leadership in this year`s meetings. Notably, we appreciate his remarkable positive and constructive leadership to build the necessary momentum through the virtual intersessional meetings.

This second session takes place as the Russian military aggression continues to rage on in Ukraine. The EU condemns in the strongest possible terms Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine, which grossly violates international law and the UN Charter and undermines international security and stability. The EU and its Member States express full solidarity with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and note that our work within the framework of the CCW to regulate the use of conventional weapons is now more important than ever. We regret that a considerable amount of time from the March session was lost due to unfounded procedural issues and allegations by one delegation and that the remainder of the session took place in an informal setting.

The EU welcomes the work over the past years by the GGE on LAWS and acknowledges the substantial contribution it has made to our common understanding of this complex topic and to finding common ground. The past achievements, including the 11 guiding principles, previous outcome documents as well as the chair`s summary of the 2021 and 2022 sessions, should help to inform our work this year.

It is essential that the GGE will be able to achieve considerable results. The CCW offers an appropriate framework for dealing with the issue of emerging technologies in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems within the context of the objectives and purposes of the Convention. The EU underlines that the CCW is the relevant international forum in this regard  and must remain responsive to new developments in the field of weapons technology and be able to adequately address them.

The EU emphasises that human beings must make the decisions with regard to the use of lethal force, exert control over lethal weapons systems that they use and remain accountable for decisions over the use of force in order to ensure compliance with International Law, in particular International Humanitarian Law, also taking into account ethical considerations.

We agree that a broader common understanding on a dual track or two-tier approach to weapons systems based on emerging technologies in the area of LAWS is emerging and merits inclusion in the final report. In concrete terms, we support the fact that a distinction should be made between those weapon systems that cannot be used in accordance with the rules and principles of IHL and systems that include autonomous features but can be used in accordance with IHL.

Moreover, the EU is convinced that the GGE LAWS must build on past achievements with the aim to achieve substantive outcomes. In the course of the informal discussion that have been organized by Chair since the March meeting of the GGE we had the impression that the so-called “two-tier approach” has gained traction, as outlined in a number of papers submitted to the GGE, including substantive proposals from European Union Member States.

We welcome the valuable contributions that were made by academia, think tanks and civil society. Their input enriches the discussion enormously.

We hope that the final report this year will reflect these points and move us forward substantially, providing a good basis for the GGE’s further work.

In conclusion, let us reiterate that we support you Mr Chair in your efforts to achieve

a report setting out the areas of emerging consensus and recommendations for further work based on the working papers.