Archive - Conference Papers

In contrast to non-proliferation of nuclear, chemical, biological weapons, there is no legally binding international instrument which controls conventional arms transfers. The EU is among the strongest supporters of proposals for a universal Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) discussed at the UN since 2005. Since the EU member states traditionally score among the top arms exporters in the world, the EU's support for the ATT promises to become a real test-case for its commitment to effective multilateralism. This paper attempts to assess EU's role in the process of ATT negotiations. First, it analyses EU's internal effectiveness, i.e. vertical coordination between EU institutions and the member states, as well as horizontal coherence within trade-security nexus. Second, the analysis addresses EU's external effectiveness - multilateral diplomatic efforts - against the criteria of goal achievement, role recognition and resource allocation. The paper concludes that despite the high level of internal effectiveness, the EU failed to secure a favourable outcome of the ATT negotiations, thus casting ambiguous implications for its role as a champion of effective multilateralism.