The european directive on transfers of defence-related products within the community and a non-exhaustive model of implementation

The European Directive on the intra-community transfer of defence products from 2009 established mandatory steps to be taken in order to simplify the necessary documentation and to create a federated framework linking Member States’ national approaches and regulations. The regulatory document emerged as a result of the need to distinguish between import-export and transfer operations and, further, to secure the defence-related supplies within the European Union. The Directive introduced a new licensing system, based on general, global and individual licenses, encouraging the Member States to use general licenses for simple transfers of defence products between Member States, while maintaining control over their key security interests. From the perspective of the new European Defence Fund, the application of the Directive is difficult and measures should be taken to secure a more uniform implementation at Member States’ level, at least from the perspective of transfers associated with research and development and innovation.