Results of the EU and SEESAC’S Arms Control Activities in the Western Balkans in 2010-2012

On 31 December 2012, SEESAC successfully completed its flagship regional arms control project funded by the European Union under Council Decision 179/2010/CFSP. Working in six countries of the Western Balkans and contributing the to the implementation of the EU Strategy to combat the illicit accumulation and trafficking of SALW and their ammunition, the project accomplished the following results:
 

• Increased capacity to manage stockpiles of weapons and ammunition – by developing and executing a 3-module training programme for a total of 58 officials from the BiH, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and FYR Macedonia.
• Improved security of weapons and ammunition storage sites - by improving  4 storage locations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, upgrading the central police weapons and ammunition storage in Croatia and renovating an ammunition storage site of the Ministry of Defence of Montenegro;
• Destroyed surplus and confiscated SALW – by disposing of 45,285 SALW in Serbia and 33,091 SALW in Croatia;
• Improved national weapons registration and record-keeping systems – by enhancing the weapons registration system in FYR Macedonia and establishment of an electronic weapons registration system in Montenegro;
• Increased security and reduced risk of proliferation – by supporting a collection and registration of weapons campaign which resulted in 589 pcs. of illicit automatic weapons, 16,368 pcs. of illicit fragmentation weapons, 1,164 pcs. of legal weapons,  818,153 pcs. of ammunition and 620 kg of explosive being collected in Croatia in 2010 and 2011;
• Increased the understanding of international marking and tracing instruments – by organizing a Regional Seminar on Marking and Tracing;

 
The EU previously supported SEESAC through the Council Decision 2002/842/CFSP, dated 21 October 2002, implementing the  Joint Action 2002/589/CFSP, extended and amended by Council Decisions 2003/807/CFSP dated 17 November 2003 and 2004/791/CFSP dated 22 November 2004. The implementation of these Decisions has been positively assessed by the Council.

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