The European Commission (EC) presented in December 2008 a Proposal for a Council Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1334/2000 setting up a Community regime for the control of exports of dual-use items and technology. This proposal has been set up to achieve ‘uniform and consistent application of controls throughout the Community’, to ‘simplify the current legal system, to enhance the industry’s competitiveness and to establish a level playing field for all Community exporters when they export certain items to certain destinations.’ The Proposal covers six Community General Export Authorisations (CGEA). It is based on discussions within the sub-group on new CGEAs of the Working Party on Dual-Use Goods, which continued under the Portugese Presidency.
In preparing the Presidency of the European Union in 2010, the Flemish Arms Trade
Monitoring Unit of the Flemish Department of Foreign Affairs ordered a study on the
similarities and differences between the CGEAs in the European Commission’s Proposal and a similar procedure that is in place in the United States. The export or re-export of dual-use goods from the United States are regulated in the Export Administration Regulations. A License Exception is an authorization that allows an exporter to export or re-export under stated conditions, items subject to the Export Administration Regulations that would otherwise require a license.

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