EU opens new export licensing system under sweeping defence directive

Europe's defence companies are expected to make their first licence requests soon under new rules to speed up export licensing across the continent.

How industry responds to the opportunity will be reflected in the European Commission's new online registry for companies certified to receive the goods.

The new registry, known as CERTIDER, was formally launched on 29 June as part of the EU's defence-transfers directive (2009/43/EC) to simplify the movement of defence equipment among the 27 member states.

Passed in 2009, the directive's transposition deadline for conversion into national law passed in August 2011. A few countries have missed 13 June 2012 implementation deadline "but they should be on track very soon", an EU official told IHS Jane's on 4 July.

The first applications for new licences "could arrive after the summer, but it depends on the willingness of the companies and their transfer needs," he said. "It's wait and see right now."

The key innovation of the transfers directive is its creation of two new kinds of export licences: general and global. The general licence, which is the most liberalising, allows a company to execute non-sensitive product transfers to categories of recipients in other EU countries.