EU Pursuing New Law to Adopt Wassenaar Controls Vetoed by Russia

EU foreign ministers and officials this week called on the bloc to better control exports of dual-use technologies, adding that they want European nations to coordinate more closely on new restrictions and hold regular meetings to discuss “key export control policy issues.” They also want the bloc to work on a new law that would allow member states to formally adopt controls agreed to at the Wassenaar Arrangement, even if they’re blocked by Russia.

Those and other “conclusions” were reached during a May 30 meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, where officials from member states discussed the European Commission white paper from January that included several proposals to improve how the bloc implements export controls (see 2309270015). The council, which meets once a month, urged member states to “first and foremost” implement and enforce the bloc’s dual use export control regulations, and that the EU should consider a new law to allow states to introduce export controls that aren’t formally accepted at multilateral export control regimes.

Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission’s top trade official, said the EU needs to move closer toward “one set of uniform EU controls.” He said he “particularly” welcomed the commitment by EU ministers to “work further on introducing, in EU law, export controls that are agreed at multilateral level but where formal adoption is blocked by Russia.”

Several trade groups have urged the commission to find a solution to the stalled Wassenaar Arrangement, a consensus-based multilateral export control regime that has been hampered by Russia’s membership because Moscow can veto new proposals (see 2405160081). The council said the EU should do “further analysis” about an “act” that could help with “temporarily introducing new items” to the EU dual use export control list, “reflecting commitments accepted by the Member States in the framework of the Multilateral Export Control Regimes as members of those Regimes.”

Damien Levie, a trade security official with the commission, wrote on LinkedIn that this could allow the EU to “introduce controls blocked by Russia at the multilateral regimes” by adding those controls to the “EU uniform controls list.”

Dombrovskis said a single, uniform export control list -- with controls agreed to at Wassenaar -- would be “much better” than the current system, “especially in our internal market where goods controlled in one Member State can freely be transferred to others where they may not be adequately controlled and subsequently exported. This helps to avoid risky loopholes.”

EU trade groups and experts have said the lack of common export control and foreign investment review rules across member states has led to loopholes and burdens industry (see 2403190046).

The council also urged the EU to “make full use” of the Council Working Party on Dual Use Goods, a group that meets to discuss dual-use controls. The bloc should organize “periodic High-Level meetings of the working party on key export control policy issues, when necessary, in a secured and confidential format,” the council said, and should report on those meetings.

Other conclusions reached by the council emphasized that export controls are “a fundamental tool for ensuring international peace and stability” and the “high importance” of member states complying with multilateral export control regimes. Export controls are “most effective when applied multilaterally while maintaining a level playing field,” the council said, “and nurturing openness and a conducive climate for research and innovation.”