Council Decision 2014/913/CFSPShow full title

Article 1

1. For the purposes of ensuring the continuous and practical implementation of certain elements of the Strategy, as referred to in the Annex, the Union shall:

(a) support activities in support of the Code and the MTCR, in particular with the aim to:

(i)

promote the universality, and in particular the subscription to the Code by all States with ballistic missile capabilities;

(ii)

support the implementation and reinforcing the visibility of the Code;

(iii)

promote adherence to the MTCR guidelines and the Annex thereto;

(b) more generally, support a range of activities to fight against the proliferation of ballistic missiles, aimed in particular at raising awareness of this threat, stepping up efforts to increase the effectiveness of multilateral instruments, building up support to initiatives to address these specific challenges and helping interested countries to reinforce nationally their relevant export control regimes.

2. In this context, the projects to be supported by the Union shall cover the following specific activities:

(a) activities in support of the Code:

(i)

prepare and publish a ‘welcome package’ for outreach activities towards non-subscribing States, also recalling obligations for subscribing States;

(ii)

organise outreach side events in Vienna in the margins of the HCoC annual meeting of subscribing States;

(iii)

organise outreach side events in support of the HCoC in the margins of the UN General Assembly First Committee meetings;

(iv)

organise up to three regional outreach seminars based on EU priorities (possibly Asia, Gulf countries and Latin America);

(v)

encourage subscribing and non-subscribing States' representatives from developing countries to attend the HCoC Annual meetings and outreach seminars;

(vi)

organise awareness sessions for States having recently joined the HCoC to assist them in fulfilling their obligations, including in the margins of the HCoC annual meeting in Vienna;

(vii)

support the coordination of HCoC promotion efforts with the activities of the UN 1540 Committee, including through financing the participation of HCoC experts into the 1540 Committee country visits;

(viii)

support the HCoC secure internet-based information and communication mechanism (e-ICC), including through technical enhancement of the website;

(b) activities in support of ballistic missile non-proliferation in general:

(i)

organise up to four seminars to raise awareness on ballistic missile proliferation in the margins of multilateral fora, possibly linked with the HCoC outreach events referred to in point (a), such as a seminar in the margins of UNGA or the Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory committees;

(ii)

organise up to three regional seminars to raise awareness on ballistic missile proliferation and encourage discussions on perspectives to better address the ballistic missile proliferation threat at a regional level, possibly linked with other EU outreach activities on HCoC; in association with the States concerned, seminars could take place in Asia, the Gulf region and Latin America;

(iii)

provide four food-for-thought papers on possible further multilateral steps to prevent the threat of missile proliferation and to promote disarmament efforts in the field of ballistic missiles, focusing in particular on possible confidence-building measures and exploring the possibility to adopt a regional focus as a first step, for instance in regions of particular interest for the Union and/or where progress can be expected in the near future;

(iv)

in order to prevent dual-use technology and knowledge transfer at an early stage, organise up to three awareness-building sessions for experts, especially from the scientific and/or space communities and the industry;

(v)

encourage access of academics from developing countries working on missile non-proliferation to projects of the EU Centres of Excellence;

(vi)

in coordination with the EU Centres of Excellence, organise targeted expert missions in third countries in order to share information and lessons learned regarding missile technology and dual use goods related export control and help them build up their national capabilities;

(vii)

support experts training on ballistic missiles non-proliferation, through participation in EU programmes such as that of the European Security and Defence College or in programmes of the Member States of the Union (‘Member States’).

A detailed description of the projects is set out in the Annex.