Strasbourg, 18/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 22 April, foreign affairs ministers could partially lift the oil embargo against Syria - a move that should help the Syrian coalition - a European diplomat told EUROPE on 17 April. According to this diplomat, the draft decision, if adopted, would allow member states to authorise derogations on Syrian oil, but also with regard to investments in the Syrian oil industry and exports of equipment for the oil and gas sectors.
Authorisation will be given on a case by case basis, the diplomat says, with the need to consult the coalition and to ensure that the transaction is not intended to circumvent the sanctions that are in place. According to this same source, the point of contact with the Syrian National Coalition still has to be decided and this could be in the implementing regulation next week.
For several weeks Germany has been pushing for certain economic sanctions to be lifted in order to support the Syrian people. French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius, whose country backs the measure, said on 18 April that the issue of the oil embargo is legally linked to that of the embargo on weapons, and he added that “we have until the end of May” - the expiry date for the sanctions system currently in operation.
The EU has had an embargo on Syrian oil in place since the end of 2011. Production fell from 420,000 barrels of oil per day before the beginning of the revolution in mid-March 2011 to 153,000 in October 2012. (CG/transl.fl)