The German Foreign Office Joint Action of the EU - Background Despite their destabilizing effect in many conflicts, small arms and light weapons are not yet subject to any effective arms control. Throughout the internal and external conflicts of recent decades, the vast majority of victims, for the most part civilians, were killed by small arms. Small arms, with a global circulation of some 100-500 million, are extremely durable, easy to acquire and use, but nevertheless highly effective. On the instruction of the UN Secretary-General, a UN group of experts, whose work is actively supported by the German Government, completed a report in mid-1997 on the causes and effects of the destabilizing accumulation of small arms which included a proposal to convene an international conference of states on small arms. In early August 1999, the group of experts presented a further report outlining in particular a comprehensive approach for this Conference on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects. The German Government has helped introduce numerous UN Resolutions on the small arms question, including most recently a Resolution in October 1999 in which the UN General Assembly resolved to convene the international conference of states proposed by the UN group of experts in June/July 2001 (possibly in Geneva). The preparatory committee is scheduled to meet from 28 February to 3 March 2000 in New York for the first of at least three meetings. In view of this conference, the German Government is striving to develop operative and practical steps as well as international instruments to help solve the global small arms problem. To this end it took the initiative to draw up a Joint Action of the EU, which was adopted by the Council on 17 December 1998. This corresponds to the call in the coalition agreement for an initiative to control and limit small arms. The Joint Action aims to combat the excessive and uncontrolled accumulation and spread of small arms and to help solve the problems caused by existing accumulations of these weapons. On the one hand, the EU wants to contribute to building consensus in the relevant international fora (e.g. UN, OSCE), as a basis for regional approaches leading to a worldwide regime. On the other hand, it wants to contribute by taking concrete measures to prevent the destabilizing accumulation of small arms and to reduce such accumulations to levels consistent with the legitimate security needs of individual countries (maintenance of external and internal security). A Council decision of 21 May 1999 resolved to apply the objectives and principles of the Joint Action to EU development cooperation policy. The Joint Action was presented to third countries and regional organizations in worldwide démarches. Reactions were predominantly positive. The countries associated with the EU and the EFTA/EEA countries endorsed the objectives and principles of the Joint Action, as did Canada and South Africa. Cooperation on the basis of the Joint Action has also been launched with the USA and regional organizations in Africa and Asia. On 16 November 1999, the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC) accepted a decision initiated by the EU and Canada to devise OSCE-wide measures to combat the uncontrolled accumulation and spread of small arms. This decision was welcomed by the Heads of State and Government at the OSCE Summit in Istanbul on 19 November 1999. It places the delegations of the 54 participating countries under an obligation to launch negotiations on measures to solve the small arms problem, which are suitable for the OSCE area. Initial results are to be presented at the next OSCE Ministerial Meeting at the end of 2000. The work of the FSC is to be largely based on parameters developed by the European Union in its Joint Action. The Council of the EU earmarked EUR 500,000 on 10 May 1999 to help in the collection and destruction of weapons in Albania as part of a UN pilot project. A further project on the same scale in Cambodia was agreed on 15 May 1999. Participation in a project in Mozambique (Operation Rachel) is planned together with South Africa.