Guidance

Guidance for Certificate of Integration

Published 19 March 2026

Overview

This guidance provides information about the Certificate of Integration required for Article 3 of the Agreement on Defence Export Controls.

Article 3 introduces a de minimis principle to facilitate trade between manufacturers in the signatory states. It applies when the value of defence-related components from one or more signatory states in a final system is less than 20% of the total value of that system.

Note: The total value excludes maintenance, spare parts, training, and repairs.

Article 3 does not apply to products which are covered by Articles 1 or 2 of the agreement. Article 3 applies to items on the Common Military List, however, certain goods are excluded from the de minimis principle. These are listed in Annex 3 of the agreement.

Under the agreement, an end-user undertaking is not required to support an export licence application submitted for consideration under Article 3. Instead, a harmonised ‘Integration Certificate’ has been developed, which provides information on the goods and parties involved, end user details and a de minimis declaration on the value of defence-related products from a supplying signatory state to be integrated into the final system in another signatory state.

This certificate is provided by the final integrator of the final system. UK entities who are the final integrator and who want to receive items from other signatory states for integration into a final product will need to complete this certificate to benefit from and comply with Article 3.  

By submitting an Integration Certificate, an exporter agrees that the authorities of a signatory state may share the information they provide (as part of the associated licence application) with government agencies of the other signatory state to the agreement to verify the use of Article 3 of the agreement.

Sections of the template

Section A: parties

Part A must list the relevant ‘parties’, for example, the UK supplier, the French, German or Spanish recipient who receives the goods from the UK supplier, and, if applicable, the French, German or Spanish integrator of the goods, unless this is the same as the recipient.

Section B: products

Part B describes the list of the relevant goods for which the de minimis requirements must be verified. A description of the goods, quantity or weight information, and the total value of the goods must be provided here.

Total value

The ‘value’ of an item means the costs invoiced to the recipient or consignee. This value does not include logistics costs or costs related to maintenance, training, and repair services for the products in Section B, as well as corresponding spare parts or other equipment.

Section C: declaration of commitment with regard to Integration of goods

The Integration Certificate must be completed by the integrator, for example, the French, German or Spanish company that intends to integrate the supplied goods in question into a final system. The final system refers to the final armament system into which the goods in question are to be integrated, and which either remains in France, Germany or Spain or is exported from there to a non-signatory state.

The integrator is generally the company that carries out the final integration process before export from a signatory state of the agreement to a non-signatory state.

Part C of the integration declaration contains a confirmation from the integrator that the specified goods are to be integrated (installed) into a specified overall final system.

Integrate

Integrate means that products are incorporated into an overall system through substantial and economically justified processing or working within the meaning of Article 60(2) of Regulation (EU) No 952/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 October 2013 laying down the Union Customs Code (OJ L 269 of 10 October 2013).

Final system

The final system is the final defence-related system into which the relevant items must be integrated, and which may:

• remain in a signatory state
• be exported from the signatory state to a non-signatory state

Section D: de minimis declaration

Calculation of the de minimis share:

The final integrator will establish the UK share of the value of the defence-related products in the final system. To do this, the final integrator takes into account all the shares received. For each of its direct suppliers representing more than 2% of the total value of the final system, the final integrator verifies what share of this supply comes directly from the UK and takes this share into account.

Where items are exported to an intermediate end user in a signatory state which are then incorporated within a product which is to be exported to the final integrator in another signatory state, the calculation of the UK share remains the percentage the value of the defence-related products from the UK in the final system.

Example

The UK integrator manufactures the final system and is required to complete the Integration Certificate.

They determine that 3% is supplied directly from France and 30% from Germany. Although the product supplied from Germany accounts for 30% of the overall system, 50% of the product supplied from Germany originated in France.

This means that 15% is considered as an indirect share from France (for example, 50% of 30%), which when added to the direct French share of 3% gives an overall French share of 18% (direct share of 3% and indirect share of 15%). The German direct share is 15%.

Note: If, for example, 50% of the 3% delivered from France had previously been supplied from Spain – for example, 1.5% of the total UK system – the result does not change, since supplies that make up 2% or less of the total system are generally allocated to the national share of the country (in this case France) from which the supply originates.

Section E: end user declaration

End user

The end user is the final recipient of the final system, which may be located in:

• a signatory state
• a non-signatory state to which the final system is exported or transferred