Companies, International trade, Exports of dual-use items
The guidelines in Recommendation No. 2025/683 EU
With Recommendation (EU) No. 2025/683 of 8 April 2025, published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 16 April 2025, the European Commission urged Member States to improve the coordination of national control lists that may be adopted pursuant to Article 9 of Regulation (EU) No. 2021/821 (the so-called Dual Use Regulation), in order to make the common system of export control of dual-use items more effective and efficient.
In particular, Article 9 of the Dual Use Regulation allows Member States to adopt control lists at national level, with notification of the same to the Commission and to the other Member States and with subsequent periodic publication in a collection in the Official Journal of the EU, following which Member States may impose, on the basis of the subsequent art. 10, an authorization requirement for the export of non-listed products contained in such lists.
With the guidelines contained in Recommendation no. 2025/683, the Commission intends to provide a coordination framework for the identification of similar risks and to facilitate the exchange of information by facilitating, in the procedure for adopting national control lists, the sharing and consideration of any additional information provided by other Member States or by the Commission.
As already highlighted in the White Paper on export control published by the Commission on 24 January 2024 (in Assonime News of 6 February 2024), the growing use of national lists for the control of non-listed dual-use goods – that is, goods not included in the lists in Annex I of Regulation (EU) No. 2021/821 – is mainly based on the stalemate of multilateral export control regimes; the proliferation of national control lists also makes it particularly difficult for companies to ensure compliance and prevent the risk of carrying out operations involving dual-use materials or products falling within the scope of controls (on this subject, see Assonime News of 12 July 2024, Non-listed dual-use goods: Italian national control list established).
With reference to the phase of preparation of control lists, the Commission recommends that Member States rely on “national risk assessments” and “objective technical parameters” similar to those provided for by multilateral export control regimes, structured in entries individually identified with an alphanumeric control code.
In order to facilitate better coordination, Member States are invited to share the content of the national lists from the design stage, i.e. well before their adoption and simultaneous notification. In particular, the State intending to adopt a national list is required to inform, on a voluntary basis, the other Member States and the Commission about the risks identified and the national controls under consideration to address those risks, including the following information:
a) the intended scope;
b) the impact of the national control list under consideration on EU economic operators;
c) other information useful for the development of the national control list.
Member States are invited to transmit, again on a voluntary basis, the full draft of the national control list before its adoption, to allow the Commission and the other Member States to formulate and send comments, so that the State promoting the project can take them into account.
At the request of the latter, the draft may also be examined by the Working Party on Dual-Use Items (or another competent preparatory body of the Council).
Following the adoption of the list, the exchange of information should conclude with a shared information on the actual implementation of the controls provided for by these lists, for which the Commission undertakes to make available an electronic system as a secure means of communication and to guarantee the confidentiality of the information.
For the purposes of adopting national control lists, it would be desirable to have greater involvement of national companies, which can certainly provide, especially from a technical point of view, a fundamental contribution to the identification of the products and technologies most at risk, worthy of being monitored and possibly included in the lists referred to in art. 9, also for the purpose of promoting prior knowledge of the possible introduction of an authorization requirement, which would allow for better planning of trade at international level.
Source Assonime
Association of Italian joint-stock companies
