Monday

4th Dec 2023

Killer robots debate shortened by unpaid bills

  • Drones can be designed to become killer robots, but a UN discussion on international consequences has been cut short because of a lack of cash (Photo: Skye Studios)

A United Nations working group has scheduled a meeting for November to discuss lethal autonomous weapons, after enough countries, including Spain and Greece, had paid their bills.

Their first meeting, scheduled for August, had been cancelled because the cash to finance the meeting rooms and translators was lacking.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Some of the late payments are small when compared to national budgets (Photo: Ken Teegardin)

However, almost 50 countries still have not paid their contributions - either from this year, previous years, or both - casting doubts over whether future discussions can go ahead.

Last month, a group of more than 100 technology CEOs signed an open letter calling on the UN to prevent an arms race with lethal autonomous weapon systems - colloquially referred to as "killer robots".

The CEOs wrote that they regretted the August meeting - which was supposed to be the inaugural meeting - had been cancelled. They called on the working group, the Group of Governmental Experts (GGE), to "double their efforts" at the first meeting in November.

But the five-day August meeting has been cancelled, not postponed. This means that the UN experts will spend only five days instead of ten days this year on the issue.

The subject is pressing, however, since killer robot technology is advancing quickly.

"There is surprisingly little debate about some of the consequences," Soren Transberg Hansen, one of the open letter's signatories, told EUobserver last month.

In 2014, the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution which called on EU member states to "ban the development, production and use of fully autonomous weapons, which enable strikes to be carried out without human intervention".

But the most recent Council of the EU conclusions on the subject, from December 2016, showed such a ban is still far away.

The text, agreed on by member states, said only that the Council "appreciates the important work" done by the UN group, and noted that it hoped the GGE would begin work in 2017.

Extracurricular budget

The GGE is part of the UN's Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW).

CCW meetings are extracurricular, and not funded from the central UN budget.

Since then, $55,308 (around €46,000) worth of payments came in - half of them from Spain and Greece. Last week, it was decided it was enough to fund the November session.

However, as of 31 August 2017, the CCW still had $336,322.37 (around €280,000) in outstanding payments, which are determined based on a country's GDP.

The bulk of that, 70 percent, is caused by subsequent unpaid bills from Brazil. Nevertheless, several European nations are also to blame.

Russia owes the CCW its 2017 contribution of $35,956.35 (around €30,000), while Ukraine has accumulated unpaid bills since 2009 - amounting to $10,467.37 (around €8,700).

According to the press office of Ukraine's foreign affairs ministry, the back payment has a "purely technical legislation background".

"As of now, Ukraine is preparing amendments to the ... legislation in the sphere of international financial obligations of our state. We expect this issue to be settled soon," it said in an e-mailed statement.

Finland owes the UN €12.50

Some of the late payments are small when compared to national budgets.

EU members with outstanding payments in relation to CCW are Finland ($15, or €12.50), Luxembourg ($617.05, or €516), Poland ($8,485.32, or €7,000), and Portugal ($2,952.97 or almost €2,500).

Mikko Autti, of the arms control unit at Finland's foreign ministry, explained that the unpaid contribution was "due to a human error".

"In fact, Finland has intended to pay its net contributions to the UN in a timely manner and in full and the minor payment gap is actually bank transfer fees, which also should have been paid by Finland," Autti wrote in an e-mail, noting the matter will be corrected.

The other countries did not reply to a request for comment.

The same problem exists for another UN groups on disarmament, the Anti Personnel Landmine Convention, which is missing around €40,000.

'Killer robots' are not about Terminator

A European signatory of an open letter about autonomous weapons says the imagery of fictional killer robots is distracting from a seriously dangerous issue.

EU should raise own taxes, says report

A group chaired by former Italian PM and EU commissioner Mario Monti says Brexit should be used to create EU-level levies to depend less on member states contributions, and to abolish member states rebates in the EU budget.

MEPs delay debate about 'killer robots'

"International regulation has to be agreed before the development gets completely out of hand," says one MEP as the European Parliament is due to vote on an EU defence fund that could see taxpayer-funded development of the controversial weapons systems.

Platform workers could face 'robo-firing' under EU's AI rules

The platform workers directive, currently under negotiation, could create "ambiguity" on the processing of personal data by the platform and would also violate the GDPR by including the use of so-called robo-firing, research shows.

Latest News

  1. COP28 warned over-relying on carbon capture costs €27 trillion
  2. Optimising Alzheimer's disease health care pathways across Europe
  3. Georgian far-right leader laughs off potential EU sanctions
  4. The EU's U-turn on caged farm animals — explained
  5. EU-China summit and migration files in focus This WEEK
  6. COP28 debates climate finance amid inflated accounting 'mess'
  7. Why EU's €18m for Israel undermines peace
  8. Israel's EU ambassador: 'No clean way to do this operation'

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  3. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  4. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?
  5. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  6. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  3. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  4. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us