The EU’s External Action Service says that it is investigating the flow of weapons from the Balkan states to the Middle East. Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), which publishes the popular BalkanInsight news site, released a report recently detailing arms sales to Middle Eastern states and demonstrating that some of the arms in question ended up in the hands of terrorist groups.
The bulk of the deals, totalling 829 million euros, were made with Saudi Arabia.
The exporting countries granted the licences despite evidence that many weapons are being diverted to Syria, ending up with opposition as well as Islamist groups accused of atrocities.
EU members and countries seeking to join the union are obliged to carry out eight different checks before agreeing arms export licences.
The checks include assessing the risk that sold weapons could be diverted to or end up in the hands of terrorist groups.
