Brussels, 07/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 6 March, Ria Oomen-Ruijten MEP (Netherlands) and Elmar Brok MEP (Germany) presented a seven point action plan on the violence in Syria. They want the EU and its member states to step up their efforts in terms of the supply of material to the opposition, the supply of humanitarian aid and action within the United Nations. Oomen-Ruijten and Brok will send the action plan to High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton in the coming days. “As a politician, I can no longer stand to see us doing hardly anything to stop all this violence”, Oomen-Ruijten said.
Oomen-Ruijten and Brok want the EU and its 27 member states to act with a feeling of urgency and on the basis of the modified embargo, and to begin to supply military training “as soon as possible” and non-lethal equipment such as vehicles, bullet-proof vests and night vision equipment. Yet this aid must not be supplied to any old opposition group. Oomen-Ruijten and Brok therefore call on the European External Action Service (EEAS) to give the European Council and the European Parliament a detailed overview of the composition of the Syrian opposition, making clear their attachment to human rights, democracy and the rule of law. They also want the EEAS to determine which groups would be the most appropriate to be beneficiaries of European aid. They add that the EU should increase its support to the moderate factions in the opposition - factions that have been identified as such by the EEAS - and help them to become a credible alternative to the current regime. Oomen-Ruijten and Brok are concerned by the fact that the most radical groups are those supported by Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
The two MEPs also call for support for the creation of safe-havens along the Turkish-Syrian border and perhaps in Syria, for the creation of humanitarian corridors by the international community, and for the increase of humanitarian aid.
Lastly, Oomen-Ruijten and Brok call on the EU and its member states to continue to explore - under the United Nations Security Council - all the options as part of the Responsibility to Protect, in close cooperation with the United States, Turkey and the League of Arab States. This would be to help the Syrian people and to put an end to the bloodshed - and also to work on a referral to the International Criminal Court so that it might lead a formal inquiry. (CG/transl.fl)