Division 4.3.2 Benefit to EU arms control initiatives

Regular iTrace Project's Team visits to Member State capitals permit bilateral discussions on sensitive subjects (i.e. post-export diversion), allow Member States to input directly into the design of iTrace and its outputs (direction and scope of investigations and types of reporting), and help develop confidence-building measures (i.e. the iTrace 'advance notification' and 'right of reply' processes). Critically, iTrace outreach to Member States provides a forum for often-nuanced discussion of national challenges and opportunities related to commitments under Criterion 7 of Common Position 2008/944/CFSP and Article 11 of the ATT. Under past iTrace Projects (I, II and III), outreach visits have been critical to understanding Member States' information requirements, whether of a general nature (i.e. 'what is your threat assessment regarding weapons entering a particular theatre of armed conflict') or those that are specific to the iTrace Project (i.e. 'we need a dashboard that alerts us instantly to every domestically produced weapon that iTrace field teams document').