In 2011, the European Parliament and Council agreed to transpose the 2005 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) arrangement on export credit activities into EU law. It was agreed to grant a delegated act to the Commission to allow future versions of the OECD arrangements to be transposed in exchange for increased transparency in the export credit activities of member states at EU level. The first annex of the resulting Regulation 1233/2011 contains details of the requirements for annual reporting by the member states to the European Commission. One of the most essential points member states have to report on is how the activities of the export credit agencies comply with the EU's external action objectives, as set out in Articles 3 and 21 of the Treaty of the European Union.
This own-initiative report is a reaction to the first official reporting exercise by the member states for 2011. It contains a set of recommendations for future reporting, particularly in terms of compliance with the EU's external action objectives.