Lessons from MENA: appraising EU transfers of military and security equipment to the Middle East and North Africa: a contribution to the review of the EU common position

This publication analyses EU arms exports to the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), in recent years both from an overarching perspective as well as detailing specific transfers. While the particular timing and nature of the Arab Spring itself could not be predicted, the potential for trouble at some point and the responding State repression could hardly be a surprise given the nature of these authoritarian regimes. While civil society over the years has questioned a number of arms sales to undemocratic regimes with a history of violating human rights, the Arab Spring appeared to be a necessary condition for EU governments to recognise that the implementation of their export control policies had failed on numerous occasions. This analysis probes the level of caution EU exporting authorities demonstrated. The aim is to identify patterns of poor decision-making on arms exports where they exist, to consider why such patterns exist and to suggest remedies. Demands for socio-economic improvements as well as civil liberties, as they emerged in numerous Arab countries over the past year, are not likely to die soon, nor are these demands constrained to the Arab world