HC Deb 21 October 1998 vol 317 cc1148-9W
Mr. Alan Johnson

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the Government's policy on licensing arms exports to Slovenia. [56146]

Ms Quin

We, along with EU partners, have decided, taking into account the well-entrenched democracy in Slovenia and her stable political and economic structures, to remove Slovenia from the EU Common Position on arms exports to the former Yugoslavia. Applications for licenses to export military equipment will be considered on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the criteria announced by my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary on 28 July 1997,Official Report, columns 26–29, and the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports.

Mr. Alan Johnson

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 28 July 1997,Official Report, columns 26–29, how the criteria for defence exports are used to assess applications for licence to export arms or goods subject to control for strategic reasons, for the purpose of demonstration, trial, testing or evaluation. [56232]

Mr. Tony Lloyd

Licence applications to export goods and technology controlled under Part III of Schedule 1 to the Export of Goods (Control) Order 1994 (the 'Military List'), or dual use goods when there are grounds for believing that the end-user of such goods will be the armed forces or internal security forces of the recipient country, are examined on a case-by-case basis against the published defence exports criteria and the EU Code of Conduct.

When the application is for demonstration, trial, testing or evaluation purposes, attention is paid to the level of control exercised by the exporter and whether the export will be temporary in arriving at a judgment as to whether the equipment might be used for internal repression, international aggression, diverted to an undesirable end-user or otherwise contravene the criteria.

If a decision is taken to issue such a licence, this in no way fetters our discretion in considering future applications for the export of equipment of the type demonstrated or evaluated. Such applications will be treated on their merits against the prevailing circumstances at that time.

In some cases, licensees will be informed that, on the information available at that time, a licence would not normally be granted for the permanent export of the same or a greater quantity of the goods concerned to the same end-user, irrespective of the purpose of the intended export.