Arms export criticism

Germany remains one of the world's biggest exporters of arms - and there are some dubious governments on its list of customers. For the country's Evangelical and Catholic Churches, the export of German weapons and armaments to countries outside the EU and NATO is anathema. The Joint Conference Church and Development (GKKE) is especially critical of shipments to countries where human rights are not always respected.

"A worrying development is the still rising importance of North African states and countries from the Middle East as recipient countries of German arms exports," the Catholic chair of the GKKE, Prelate Karl Jüsten, emphasized when presenting his committee's arms exports report. Algeria, for example, is licensed to produce the Fuchs armored vehicle. "In doing this, the government is largely giving away control over re-exports and final destination," Jüsten warned.

Among other things, the churches view the sale of 146 patrol boats to Saudi Arabia with skepticism. They don't believe that talk of safeguarding jobs is an acceptable argument for approving the arms deal. "There's a danger that arms shipments that go against both ethics and good political sense are being approved out of economic considerations," explained Prelate Martin Dutzmann, the Evangelical chair of the GKKE. The Church representatives recommend a greater amalgamation of the arms industry in Europe, thereby reducing overcapacity. European states would then be more independent of markets outside the Western alliances.

Criticism of arms shipments to crisis regions

A total of 2.24 billion euros ($2.76 billion) of arms exports to NATO and EU states were approved in 2013 - but 3.6 billion were also approved for other countries. Of these third states, the majority of goods went to Algeria (825.7 million) and Qatar (673.3 million,) followed by Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Israel. In the first half of 2014 the share of export licenses to third countries reached a record high of 63.5 percent. "What was intended to be an exception has become the rule," warned Jüsten. The Churches oppose all arms exports to crisis regions. They are also deeply skeptical about arming individual states there in the hope that they will maintain stability.

The parliamentary group of the Left Party applauds the Churches' position. Jan van Aken, the opposition party's foreign policy spokesperson, said that after one year of the Social Democrat Sigmar Gabriel as vice chancellor, there is virtually nothing to show for it in terms of genuine limitation of weapons exports, other than a little extra transparency. Aken sees no sign of the change of course in arms export policy that the Social Democrats promised. "In practice, Gabriel and Merkel are hand in glove when it comes to arming the world with German weapons of war," Aken said.

The Greens also want to see more transparency - "even if the German government is now informing parliament and the public more often about its licenses for arms exports," said the Greens' security policy spokesperson, Agnieszka Brugger.

Change of course on exports?

The GKKE has been submitting its arms reports since 1997. In recent years, the Churches' figures have been presented before those of the federal government. This was not the case this year: The government presented an interim report on arms export licenses and exports of weapons of war in mid-October. The Church committee sees this as a positive development. The Churches also gave the government credit for stopping the delivery of a combat training center to Russia.

Furthermore, the Churches cite a "drastic reduction in small arms shipments to third states." This fell from 18 million euros in the first half of 2013 to 1.4 million euros in the same period in 2014. The Church experts say that there are indications of a change of course. Heckler&Koch, for example, were not allowed to deliver any more components for the popular G36 assault rifle to Saudi Arabia.

"We welcome the announcement of strict criteria for small arms exports and the steps towards a more effective control of final destination," said Prelate Jüsten. He called for this promise to be implemented swiftly.