From the Centre for European Reform, this is the CEO podcast.

It is a critical moment.

If we do not act with urgency, we would then severely undermine the liberal order.

Brexit means Brexit, and we're going to make a success of it.

The wind is back in Europe's sales.

We have now a window of opportunity, but it will not stay open forever.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the SeaR podcast.

My name is Sophia Besh. I'm a senior

research fellow here at the Center for European Reform and today I'm in conversation with Beth

Oppenheim. It's also a researcher and co-host of this very podcast here at the CER. And Beth and

I are talking today about European arms experts and the role of the EU in arms

exports policy.

Now, why are we talking about this now?

Arms experts were, of course, the focus of much public attention over the course of the

last year because European governments basically could not agree whether it was right or not

to export weapons

to Saudi Arabia at a time when the regime was involved in a war in Yemen, and Germany in

particularly frustrated partner countries and industry with what was perceived to be an inconsistent

and unpredictable course, going as far as an outright export ban to Saudi Arabia on all German-made systems and components.

But this conflict also points to a wider rating issue and one that will have implications going beyond just this one dispute,

and that is that as long as Europeans and EU member states are unable to agree on a shared arms export policy, they will struggle to

develop into a credible foreign policy and defense player. So that's where you want to get into

...