Declaring its support for a future international treaty to curtail illegal trade in small arms and light weapons (SALW), the European Union (EU) is preparing its own strategy to counter the production and trafficking of these arms.

According to Defense News, the strategy recommends the use of tagging and marking techniques to trace ammunition supplies, for example, and strong support for international civilian, military and border-monitoring missions to halt flows of illegal arms.

According to a copy of the draft strategy obtained by Defense News, EU countries should pay “particular attention to the enormous accumulations of SALW stockpiled in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, and how they are surreptitiously distributed to the regions most wracked by instability, civil war or failed states. Specifically, it notes Latin America, Central and Eastern Asia, the Balkans, the Middle East and Africa.

“The tools of these new wars are essentially small arms and light weapons, much more than heavy weaponry,” says the 11-page draft document, entitled “EU Strategy to Combat Illicit Accumulation and Trafficking of SALW and Their Ammunition.”

There have been other attempts to place ammunition on the UN’s agenda on arms control, but the EU’s new effort will encourage other countries who want a binding agreement that will include ammunition as well as small arms.

Meanwhile, the UN General Assembly in early October adopted a resolution instructing the Secretary General to pursue further recommendations from nations and non-government agencies pointing toward the UN’s 2006 gun control meeting.