Brussels, 27/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - Member state representatives at the Political and Security Committee (PSC) will be meeting on the afternoon of Friday 29 April to take stock of the situation in Syria and, possibly, to prepare European sanctions against President Bachar el-Assad's regime. “All options are on the table” but the kind of restrictive measures that the EU could adopt is not yet clear, Catherine Ashton's spokesman told the press on Wednesday 27 April. He also repeated the EU's indignation at the “unacceptable” and bloody repression of anti-government demonstrators. The “restrictive measures” being discussed by Ashton with member states would include a freeze on assets and a visa ban issued against the Syrian leaders. Suspension of EU aid to Syria had also been evoked but does not seem to have unanimous approval among the EU27. It is expected that the 27 will conclude at the PSC that, “if there is any need for concrete action to be taken, it can be done very quickly”, Ashton's spokesman said, although he did not specify what form such measures would take.
On Wednesday morning, in Berlin, the German government clearly said it was in favour of imposing sanctions on Damascus. Belgium did likewise, with Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere saying that a “point of no return” had now been reached. France had already requested, on Tuesday, that the EU and the UN take “strong measures” against those responsible for the massacres in Syria. France, with the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland (the current European members of the UN Security Council) have, moreover, circulated a draft condemnation of the repression in Syria at the Security Council in New York. Pending the outcome of the debate on possible European sanctions, several member states including France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany convened a meeting of Syrian ambassadors on Wednesday, in the context of coordinated action, in order to inform them of their condemnation of the violent repression against demonstrators. (H.B./transl.jl)