EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini announced on Thursday 21 September that a new conference on Syria will be held in Brussels in the spring of next year.
"We need to closely monitor the delivering of funds during these coming weeks and months, because pledging conferences need then to translate the commitments into real actions on the ground. But to ensure that this work is consistently carried out, we are going to host, as the European Union, a second Brussels conference next spring", said Mogherini at an event on Syria organised on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly. The first Brussels conference on Syria raised nearly €10 billion over two years.
The high representative said about the second conference: "in this way, we will launch a Brussels process that will put our convening power at the service of the Syrian people - all of them. Those that are still inside the country and those that are in the region". She gave no further details, simply saying: "and we will offer, to all of us, all the international community, the opportunity to come together and unite, as we did last April in Brussels. And affirm and confirm both our financial commitments and our political will".
"Since our last meeting in Brussels, the situation on the ground has improved (…) But all this progress can only become permanent and sustainable, if it is shored-up by a political solution to the conflict. And this is why the conference this year is not only about humanitarian support, but it's also about our support of the political process in Geneva", Mogherini stated.
She told the 40 or so delegations that they could play an important role, aiding the difficult mediation under the wise leadership of UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)