Czech arms exporters to sue Germany over transit licences

Czech arms exporters are preparing a lawsuit against the German government over transit licence permits required by the German authorities for all arms shipments through Germany. Czech exporters are complaining that the authorization – which is often denied – complicates weapon exports approved by the Czech government, and is a relict of the Cold War.

The Defence Industry Association of the Czech Republic is calling on its members to join in a class action against the German government. They would like to bring an end to what they see as unnecessary and bureaucratic obstacles to arms shipments to third countries through German territory. The head of the Defence Industry Association Jiří Hynek says that the German authorities require special licences for such shipments even though the exporters have all the licences required by Czech law.

“The situation for our exports companies is that even though a Czech company has an export licence agreement from the Czech government, they need to get another licence agreement from the German government if they want to ship their goods through Germany. That’s difficult for our companies, and in the last two years, we had many licence agreements cancelled by the German government.”

One such case happened recently to LOM Praha, an aircraft repair-and-maintenance company owned by the Czech Defence Ministry. Petr Malý, from LOM Praha, says an otherwise legal delivery of a helicopter was effectively banned by the German authorities.

“The fact is that we had a Mi-35 helicopter from Nigeria for repair here. It belonged to the Nigerian army, to the legitimate Nigerian government. We wanted to ship back the helicopter via German territory but this was not permitted although we had all the licences required by the Czech licence proceedings. But we see this as part of standard business relations which come with certain risks that you have to take into consideration.”

Although similar regulations of arms shipments apply in more EU countries than just Germany, German sea ports are vital for Czech arms exporters, and the German licensing procedure is particularly damaging to their business.

“A similar problem exists, for example, in Austria and in Poland. I think that it’s very important for all EU countries to remove this anti-export barrier. For Czech companies, Germany is very important because a lot of our exports are shipped via German ports. So that’s the reason why we need to resolve the issue with Germany. We hope that our government and our foreign ministry will help us with our effort.”

Jiří Hynek, the head of the Defence Industry Association of the Czech Republic says he would like Czech officials to address the problem during the Czech EU presidency in 2009. While the German Embassy in Prague was not ready to comment on the case, Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Tomáš Pojar said he would bring up the issue during talks with German Foreign Ministry officials next week.