The updated (2014) UK Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria

Comparison with the original Consolidated Criteria and with the EU Common Position

March 2014 marked the first time the UK Consolidated Criteria, originally established in 2000, have been updated. In the intervening years, the national and international arms transfer control landscape has changed substantially, notably with the agreement of the EU Common Position in 2008 and the 2013 adoption by the UN General Assembly of an international Arms Trade Treaty. Taken together theses place fresh obligations on the UK on issues such as gender-based violence, international humanitarian law and the risk of diversion.

This comparison, by the UK NGO Working Group on Arms, sets out in detail the language of the new Consolidated Criteria, how each criterion differs from the previous incarnation, and where there are still differences with the EU Common Position. The first section deals with several changes or differences—for the most part terminological—that are not specific to one criterion but that recur throughout. This is followed by a criterion-by-criterion analysis. 

In general terms the amendments to the Consolidated Criteria are welcome. They bring the Consolidated Criteria much more into line with the EU Common Position; most discrepancies now are due to the fact that the update also provides for other relevant external changes that have occurred since the EU Common Position was agreed (2008). This analysis does, however, identify several elements of the Consolidated Criteria that would benefit from further amendment or elaboration.

Read more on Saferworld's work on arms transfers.

“The language of the new Consolidated Criteria has certainly been tidied up, but an explanation of what it means for the Government to ‘give full weight’ to the UK national interest when deciding whether to export arms would be more than welcome.”