Academics for Palestine,
29 April 2024
Subject: Consultation Response on White Paper ‘On options for enhancing support for research and development involving technologies with dual-use potential’
To Whom It May Concern:
We write to provide feedback on the White Paper titled ‘On options for enhancing support for research and development involving technologies with dual-use potential’, at a time when Europe and the world face the urgent challenges of war, climate change, ecological collapse, global inequality and displacement.
As academics, we are uniquely positioned to shape the agenda of our research to address these challenges and to direct our efforts towards creating a better-shared existence. Allowing dual-use technology within research funding frameworks sits in direct opposition to these aims and is against the intentions of the UN Sustainable Development Goals which are stated as the core principles of EU funding programmes. Concurrently, beyond the devastating human cost of war the environmental cost of conflict places dual-use technologies in direct opposition to the intentions of the EU Green Deal and wider aims of responding to climate and ecological catastrophe. Instead, dual-use directs public funds towards war and perpetuates a cycle of conflict that undermines peace, human dignity, and environmental sustainability.
Our objection is compounded by the horror of the continued and merciless bombardment being committed by the Israeli state against the people of Gaza. Although the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) finding that there is a “plausible case of genocide” committed by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza, and that Israel must “refrain from” acts of genocide under the Genocide Convention, these acts have been facilitated with the support of EU R&I funding under previous framework programmes. EU R&I funding has been used to support Israeli arms companies, including those complicit in human rights abuses and violations of international law such as Elbit Systems Ltd and Israel Aerospace Industries which have received funding for security research despite their involvement in the prolonged violent oppression of the Palestinian people. EU R&I funding has also been used to support UN-blacklisted companies that are involved in illegal Israeli settlement activity, such as Motorola Solutions Israel Ltd, as well as those having contracts with the Israeli Ministry of Defence that provide exclusive military communications systems for the Israeli military and its Intelligence Division.
These examples raise serious concerns about the ethical regulation of participation in dual-use research programmes and the accountability of Associated Countries. This highlights that the EU must tighten, rather than loosen, its control of R&I funding to prevent complicity in war crimes and to uphold the values that it espouses.
We therefore request that –
- the EU maintains its current prohibition of dual-use for R&I funding and adds stricter stipulations and enforcement mechanisms around what the funds can be used for. Specifically, it should not allow any R&I funds to be used by any organisation or academic institution cooperating with projects that will be used by militaries or by the weapons and arms industries.
- the EU protects academics from complicity in war crimes by aligning the current funding scheme with the aims and values of the EU, the EU should continue to prohibit dual-use research in current and future EU R&I funding framework programmes, increase and ring-fence funding for basic and applied research and innovation with exclusively civil applications and strengthen safeguards against R&I funding being misused by state or non-state actors to violate international humanitarian law.
Given the many global challenges we face, we urge the EU to prioritise peace, diplomacy, sustainability, and compliance with international law in its R&I funding.
Academics for Palestine
Academics for Palestine 