The lobby of the European arms sector is putting more and more pressure on millions of euros to be used for research into the production of weapons, although they could target projects on pacifist ways of solving and preventing conflicts. With the term defense as a pretext, the European arms trade is kept competitive and the capacity of the member states to export abroad is maintained, to countries such as Saudi Arabia, directly involved in several armed conflicts.
The No EU Money for the Arms Industry campaign, promoted by the European Network Against Arms Trade (ENAAT), wants to prevent the European Union from allocating part of its budgets to the arms sector. During the 2019-2020 period, the European Commission intends to allocate 500 million euros to research and development in the arms industry. This figure could increase in the coming years.