Berlin Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) wants to reorganize the rules for the sale of German weapons and military equipment. According to government circles, his ministry has drawn up key points for the “Armaments Export Control Act” agreed in the coalition agreement and intends to coordinate them within the federal government shortly.
Preparations for the law have been underway in the ministry for several months under the leadership of State Secretary Sven Giegold. The challenge of finding the right balance is great. On the one hand, the Greens stand for a more restrictive armaments policy. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has heightened the need to be more cautious about supplies to authoritarian states.
At the same time, the war ensures that general disarmament no longer seems appropriate. Rather, the federal government must now really manage to support friendly states in problem situations with German armaments.
The proposals from the Ministry of Economics are correspondingly far-reaching, and the further legislative process will be correspondingly complex – especially with regard to compatibility with stronger defense cooperation in Europe.
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The old federal government made up of Union and SPD had dealt with the approval of arms exports fairly freely. As a result, guns have found their way into the hands of those in power who are not known to be flawless Democrats.
New countries on the positive list
Most of the planned rules for deliveries to third countries are not new. In the future, however, the traffic light wants to give greater weight to human rights, democracy and the rule of law in arms export decisions, according to government circles.
If the weapons and other military goods could be used for “internal repression, ongoing and systematic violations of human rights, gender-based or minority-based violence, or in connection with the use of child soldiers,” the government would no longer issue permits.
On the one hand, the Ministry of Economics wants to curtail the list of possible recipients of German armaments. Originally there was even the idea of defining “trustworthy” states on a list of countries in the law, but this was dropped. On the other hand, the export should also be made easier.
The The government wants to put aside the principle of not delivering to crisis areas, which was already dropped in support of Ukraine. Government circles report that the list of NATO partners who are safe for arms deliveries is to be expanded to include South Korea. The democratic country is considered a value partner, but has not been treated as such due to the ongoing tensions with neighboring North Korea over arms exports. Singapore, Chile and Uruguay are also expected to be on the list.
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It is already clear that the proposals will lead to major discussions within the governing coalition. He sees “light and shadow” in the cornerstones, clarified the Vice-Chairman of the Economic Committee, Hannes Walter (SPD).
The decisive question will be how the new rules fit into European defense policy. Germany is considered a difficult partner when it comes to cooperation in the armaments sector because it already has more restrictive rules than France or Great Britain, for example.
Joint European armaments projects are complicated
In mid-September, Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) therefore emphasized in a keynote address on the national security strategy that Germany should not place itself above its European partners in its arms export policy.
The Federal Republic is still making European armaments cooperation complicated by “the fact that we insist on special rules for the export of armaments,” said the minister. Which partner should invest in joint projects if you always have to fear that Germany will prevent exports and thus make refinancing more difficult?
The strict export regulations were only standardized and merged by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. But there is concern that Germany’s bad position in international armaments projects would be cemented.
“It is again a German solo effort, although more Europe would be needed right now,” says Wolfgang Niedermark, member of the management board at the Federation of German Industries (BDI).
Hans Christoph Atzpodien, General Manager of the Federal Association of the German Security and Defense Industry, warned that the “already limited entrepreneurial scope of the German industry, which is strongly characterized by medium-sized companies, would be further restricted”.
Most recently, Germany had aroused the displeasure of other European countries when it long blocked the export of equipment and ammunition for the Eurofighter and Tornado fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, even though the partner nations Great Britain, Italy and Spain wanted to deliver.
New way of collaborating on community projects
The reason was that the SPD, Greens and FDP had agreed in the coalition agreement not to deliver any armaments to countries that were “demonstrably directly involved in the Yemen war”, which is the case for Saudi Arabia.
In September, after a visit by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to Saudi Arabia, the export was made possible. Some in the government did not consider another blockade possible because the delivery was still based on contracts that the previous governments had already concluded.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs does not want to solve the complications for the German armaments industry in joint projects through more lax rules, but through a change in cooperation. So far, the federal government can veto, even if only a small part of such a project comes from German hands. In the future, this could be replaced by a majority decision.
The proportion of votes would depend on the extent of the project participation of the respective countries. However, some in the FPD do not believe that this is enough to make Germany a reliable partner in joint armament projects. Your defense policy spokesman Alexander Müller has already announced a need for discussion “so that this law is a step in the direction of common European export regulations”.
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