The Seventh Regional Report on Arms Exports Published

Nearly 300 million euros of arms and military equipment were sold by the Western Balkan countries in 2013, according to the Seventh Regional Report on Arms Exports. The Report revealed that out of the total value of arms export licenses issued in the region– a substantive 1.4 billion euros – only 21.43 percent resulted in arms sales.
 

The Regional Report on Arms Exports is an annual publication based on export data provided by Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and published by SEESAC. The seventh issue of the Report covers exports of arms and military equipment based on export licenses issued in 2013 and is now available online.
 

The Report is a direct result of a joint effort made by the six countries from the Western Balkans to offer a detailed breakdown of their arms export activities based on a unified and an agreed upon methodology. It closely follows the example set by the European Union, which publishes the only other annual regional report on arms exports of similar quality and transparency.
 

Indicating the countries of destination and the types of equipment that have been exported to those countries, the Report also provides data on the number of issued licenses, the values of these licenses in euros, and the value of the actual arms exports that took place based on those licenses. The Report includes detailed infographics that depict exports from the Western Balkan countries to different geographical regions of the world, and helps make the main trends and activities in the field of arms exports easily identifiable.
 

The region sold over 127 million euros of arms and military equipment to North America, followed by the Middle East which purchased over 43 million euros of Western Balkan exports, non-EU European countries with 41 million euros, and the European Union with 28 million euros. According to the Report, the region had 14.5 percent exports growth compared to 2012, and issued 812 licenses for worldwide countries.
 

As was the case in previous years, the report also provides a summary of relevant national legislation on arms export controls, as well as information on relevant meetings and events attended by the participating Western Balkan states in 2013. It also offers contact information of the national institutions relevant to the process of arms export control.
 

The idea to produce an annual regional report on arms exports of the relevant Western Balkan states was first discussed at EU outreach events in Serbia (December 2007) and Slovenia (May 2008). Under the auspices of SEESAC, an agreement was reached to produce a regional report at a conference in Montenegro in June 2009. The national reports that these states produce contain detailed information on the relevant arms exports on an annual basis. The region currently produces some of the most transparent arms transfers reports on a world scale. Serbia been ranked the fourth most transparent country in 2013, in terms of arms transfers reporting, by the Small Arms Survey Transparency Barometer, after Switzerland, Germany and Romania. The national reports are used as a primary source of information on each country’s trade.
 

The production of a regional annual report on arms exports is intended to help consolidate the gains in transparency that have already been made in the region, while also demonstrating an ability and willingness to uphold the commitments associated with the Council Common Position 2008/944/CFSP, defining common rules governing the control of exports of military technology and equipment.
 

SEESAC has been publishing regional reports on arms exports since 2009  under the auspices of its Arms Transfers Control Programme in the Western Balkans project generously supported by the Kingdom of Norway.

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