In order to facilitate the rapid delivery of humanitarian aid to the victims of the 6 February (and 20 February) earthquakes in Syria, the EU Council decided on Thursday 23 February to amend, by means of a regulation, the sanctions regime that has been in force since 2011 due to the situation in Syria and which already included a wide-ranging humanitarian exception to ensure the continued delivery of humanitarian aid to any part of the country.
The EU Council highlights that these sanctions are aimed at the regime of Bashar al-Assad and his supporters, as well as at sectors of the economy from which the regime benefited and concern 291 individuals, covered by both an asset freeze and a travel ban, and 70 entities.
With the humanitarian amendment adopted on Thursday evening and published the same day in the Official Journal of the EU (Regulation (EU) 2023/407 amending Regulation (EU) No 36/2012), the EU exempts humanitarian organisations from seeking prior authorisation from the competent national authorities of EU Member States to transfer or provide goods and services for humanitarian purposes to persons and entities on the sanctioned list.
These humanitarian organisations include: the UN and its agencies, international organisations, bilaterally or multilaterally funded NGOs participating in UN humanitarian aid plans or UN refugee aid plans, public bodies or legal persons, entities or bodies receiving public funding from the EU or Member States to provide humanitarian aid.
The regulation specifies that the sanctions will not apply to funds or economic resources made available by public bodies or by legal persons, entities or bodies receiving public funding from the Union or Member States for the purpose of providing humanitarian aid or assisting the civilian population in Syria.
Since the earthquake, which is exacerbating the humanitarian crisis, humanitarian aid in kind has reached north-western Syria - delivered from Beirut (Lebanon) and Gaziantep (Turkey) - in response to the request for assistance made by the Syrian authorities on 8 February through the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (see EUROPE 13126/14, 13124/10).
The EU has also released €3.5 million in additional humanitarian funding to support partner humanitarian organizations delivering aid.
The EU Council emphasises that the EU and its Member States are the main donors of humanitarian aid to those affected by the conflict in Syria. Since 2011, they have disbursed €27.4 billion to Syria and neighbouring countries in response to this humanitarian crisis.
See the EU Council Decision and the Regulation published in the Official Journal of the EU: https://aeur.eu/f/5hs (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)