AUSTRIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Martin Schiefer and Christian Richter-Schöller, Schiefer Rechtsanwälte GmbH
related products under the Transfers Directive, technical assistance, brokering and transit, and is administered by the Federal Ministry for Economy. • Third, the EU Dual-Use Regulation applies directly to dual-use items and is supplemented by the For - eign Trade Act 2011. Customs enforcement lies with the Austrian Customs Office, while criminal enforcement lies with the public prosecutors and courts. Nuclear material is addition - ally covered by the Safeguards Act ( Sicherheitskon- trollgesetz ). 3.2 Scope of Controls: Military and Dual-Use Lists Three control lists apply: • the war material list under the War Material Regula - tion; • the military list annexed to the Foreign Trade Regu - lation, which mirrors the EU Common Military List and thereby the Wassenaar Munitions List; and • the dual-use list in Annex I of the EU Dual-Use Regulation, which is updated annually by a Com - mission Delegated Regulation to reflect decisions of the Wassenaar Arrangement, the Missile Tech - nology Control Regime, the Australia Group and the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Austria participates in all major multilateral regimes and hosts the Wassenaar Arrangement secretariat in Vienna. The Foreign Trade Regulation additionally contains a limited number of national control items. Classification follows EU practice; binding classifica - tion guidance can be sought from the Federal Ministry for Economy. 3.3 Licence Requirements For war material under the War Material Act, only indi - vidual licences exist, for each import, export or transit. For military and dual-use goods under the Foreign Trade Act 2011 and the EU Dual-Use Regulation, the main categories are: individual licences for a sin - gle end-user or transaction; global licences cover - ing multiple end-users or destinations for a defined product range, typically conditional on an internal compliance programme; and general licences, includ -
ing the EU General Export Authorisations EU001 to EU008 for low-risk destinations and scenarios, plus national general licences. Certification as a recipient of defence-related products enables simplified intra- EU transfers under the Transfers Directive. Brokering, technical assistance and transit are subject to their own authorisation types. The appropriate instrument depends on destination risk, product sensitivity and transaction frequency. 3.4 Licence Application Process Applications are filed electronically with the Federal Ministry for Economy for military and dual-use goods and with the Federal Ministry of the Interior for war material. Required documentation includes a precise technical description and classification of the items, the underlying contracts or orders, end-use and end- user certificates, the shipping route and, for global licences, a description of the internal compliance pro - gramme. Inter-ministerial consultation is standard: the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs assess - es the foreign policy criteria, and the Federal Ministry of Defence is involved where relevant; for war mate - rial, the statutory agreement requirement between the ministries applies. Straightforward dual-use individual licences are typically processed within a few weeks; applications concerning sensitive destinations or war material can take several months. Early pre-applica - tion engagement with the relevant authority is advis - able for complex programmes. 3.5 Criteria for Granting or Refusing Licences For war material, the War Material Act prohibits licenc - es in particular where the goods would be delivered into areas of armed conflict or in imminent danger of such conflict, where there is reason to believe that they would be used to suppress human rights, or where Austria’s international obligations, including embargoes, or its foreign policy interests, shaped by permanent neutrality, would be infringed. These lim - its attach to deliveries from Austrian territory. Groups producing in several countries therefore decide at an early stage from which site a given contract can be served, which makes this a question of structuring rather than a general bar on the business.
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