On Tuesday 20 May, EU foreign affairs ministers gave their political agreement to the lifting of all economic sanctions against Syria. In particular, this affects the Syrian banking system.
“This decision is reversible and also depends on progress. There cannot be peace without economic recovery, and we all need a stable Syria. Is everything really ideal? No, that’s not the case. (...) Either we give the Syrian people a chance to benefit from services, jobs and salaries in order to reduce radicalisation in Syria, or we don’t give them this chance and then we have no say over human rights and all the issues that concern us”, explained High Representative of the Union Kaja Kallas after the Council meeting.
Earlier in the day, she said that the EU had no other choice. “We actually either give them possibility to stabilise the country, or we do not do that – then we have something that we have in Afghanistan”, she warned.
Sanctions linked to the Assad regime and human rights violations are being maintained, while the decisions to lift measures can also be reversed.
“We want there to be the built-in option to reverse things so that if the country really does go down the wrong road and the regime does something wrong, we can reinstate them”, warned Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp. He also hoped that targeted sanctions could be imposed against those who violate human rights and commit violence against different groups and communities.
His Lithuanian counterpart, Kęstutis Budrys, pointed out that the lifting was linked “not only to human rights, but also to the presence of outside powers in Syria that are acting against Europe’s interests”.
Finally, according to Luxembourg’s Xavier Bettel, “we must not be blind to this or shut one eye to it. There is hope, but these are former terrorists and I want us to be able to keep the pressure on by saying that we can reverse all of this”.
The High Representative also announced a €18 million package to improve living conditions in the Daesh camps. See the Council statement on the lifting of sanctions: https://aeur.eu/f/gxa (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)