The European Council announced on Monday that it has reached agreement on a new EU regime for the control of exports, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items.
The aim of the new regulations is to adapt the Dual-Use Regulation to react to changes in the technological, economic and political situation since the existing rules came into force in 2009. The new regime is to be based on the Commission’s original 2016 proposal and the European Parliament’s comments thereto, and the Council’s negotiating mandate that was published in 2019 and featured in our previous blog post.
The proposals are reported to cover the following:
- stricter controls on cyber-surveillance technology;
- two new general EU export authorisations for dual-use items;
- improved cooperation between licensing and customs authorities;
- a new provision on so-called “transmissible controls” allowing Member States to introduce export controls based upon those established by another Member State;
- harmonisation at the EU level of rules applicable to technical assistance services; and
- new reporting rules aimed to create greater transparency.
The next step will be for Member States’ ambassadors sitting on the Permanent Representatives Committee to endorse the agreement and then for the European Parliament and Council to adopt the regulation. The full agreed text has not yet been published, but we anticipate that it will be available soon.
