The international community, meeting in Brussels on Thursday 15 June, pledged €9.6 billion to help Syrians and host communities in neighbouring countries in 2023 and beyond, announced the European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, Janez Lenarčič, at the end of the 7th conference on Syria, attended by ministers and representatives from 57 countries and 30 international organisations, including the UN.
Of these funds, €4.6 billion will come from donations in 2023. The EU and the Member States account for 70% of the donors for 2023, i.e. €3.8 billion, including €1.5 billion from the EU budget.
Donors and international financial institutions have also pledged €4 billion in loans.
The international community has already pledged €1 billion for 2024 and beyond, according to Mr Lenarčič. Earlier in the day, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, announced that the EU would release €560 million for 2024.
“This means that, collectively, we have raised €9.6 billion ($10.3 billion) in grants and loans (for 2023 and beyond). That’s €800 million more than was achieved at last year’s conference”, said Mr Lenarčič. In his view, this is a “tangible demonstration that the international community stands by the Syrians”.
However, these pledges fall far short of the amounts estimated by the United Nations as necessary to cover needs. At the opening of the session, in a video message, its secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, said that €11.1 billion was needed to help the Syrians.
Noting that the war had been going on for more than 10 years, Mr Guterres pointed out that 12 million Syrians had been displaced, 9/10 of whom were living below the poverty line and in need of humanitarian aid.
Don’t give up
Considering that it was “unacceptable” for the current situation of the Syrian people to be tolerated, Mr Borrell called for progress to be made towards a political solution to the conflict. “We cannot set aside the need for a long-term solution to the refugee situation. We need to work positively to find solutions”, he warned. In his view, over the past year there has been “little progress, very little progress” towards resolving the Syrian conflict, despite the “unstinting” efforts of UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen.
“Our task must be to find ways of working positively towards a resolution of the conflict”, he added, warning that now was not the time to give up.
For Mr Borrell, “the only way out of this conflict is a political one”. He therefore hoped that over the coming year, members of the international community would be able to “combine (their) different approaches in order to make progress towards peace in Syria”, adding that the EU was ready to explore, with its partners, all possible means of getting the Syrian regime to commit to a political solution to the conflict in Syria.
Although the League of Arab States has decided to readmit Syria, the High Representative warned that the conditions are not ripe for the EU to change its policy. “We will not re-establish full diplomatic relations with the Assad regime or start working on reconstruction until a genuine and comprehensive political transition is firmly underway - which is not the case”, he explained.
Mr Borrell also called for a continued commitment to justice and accountability for the crimes committed, and for the renewal of the UN cross-border resolution guaranteeing the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria.
Furthermore, the EU will not support organised returns to Syria unless there are cast-iron guarantees that those returns are being made voluntarily, safely, and in dignity, under international monitoring, warned Mr Borrell. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)