A major breakthrough on the control of arms sales was how Douglas Henderson responded to criticism from MEPs on a new draft EU Code of Conduct. The key element in the code is the introduction of a consultation mechanism with a view to preventing one country from selling arms to a Third World country which had already been refused sales by another EU country.
MEPs argued that it was a sham Parliament's intention was that arms could only be sold to countries which showed proper respect for human rights. When pressed by some MEPs, he accepted that this was very much a matter of judgement.
Patricia McKenna (Dublin, Greens) for example, contended that the new code would not prevent arms being sold to countries with a poor human rights record, such as Turkey and Indonesia, and that it was unfair to exclude EU countries, such as Ireland, which did not sell arms, from the consultation process.
Ms McKenna said there should be no exports of military equipment to states with poor records of respect for human rights, nor to states which spend more of their GDP on the military than on health and education.