Abstract

Wallonia’s arms export in the Belgian, European and global context This presentation was made on 15 January 2009 at a public audience of the Commission for General Affairs of the Walloon Parliament, Namur, as part of the assessment of the legal system organising the granting of arms export licences. In his speech, the author first reset the reality of walloon export within the global geopolitical context, in particular after the emergence of the ‘conflicts prevention’ concept and of an increasing awareness of the excessive proliferation of small arms in the world. He then exposed the development in the Belgian law on arms export and its 2003 changes, including, amongst other, the regionalisation of the competence, stressing the risk of a lack of coherence in the Belgian foreign policy. The author also covered the issue of arms exports within the European context. Regarding transparency, he pointed at the improved presentation of the walloon annual reports and made a proposal for new improvements.

Key words : Walloon Region, arms export, legislation, annual report, transparency.