04/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - The GUE/NGL parliamentary group at the EP organised a public hearing last week on EU weapons exports and the threat this represents to peace and security. According to statistics presented by the MEP Tobias Pflüeger (GUE/NGL, Germany), the main weapons exporters at the EU are France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Sweden, which account for almost a third of the arms trade in the world “more than the USA” over the period 1994-2001. In this context, some participants at the meeting called for the new European Defence Agency to have a “strong and lasting” influence on the European weapons agency, whereas Pflüeger said that it was operating “outside the law” and what was needed was the adoption of a code of conduct on future EU exports.