Damascus, 24/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - On 23 April, Syria and the European Commission resumed negotiations for a Euro-Mediterranean agreement between this country and the EU. This 6th session (the last had been held end December 2000), which continued on Tuesday, should allow an exchange of views on the general framework of Euro-Syrian relations before entering into the detailed content of the future agreement. For now, it is a matter of exploring ways to integrate Syria into the association agreement scheme signed by the EU with the countries of the Mediterranean rim, and to help Syria reform its economy and its administrative structures. Several targeted actions in different economic sectors (enterprises, banks, etc.) have been held regularly, in parallel to the negotiation process.
Hani Habeeb, Syrian Ambassador to the EU, states "we undertook to conclude such an agreement, but we are keen that negotiations should result in a just and balanced result guaranteeing the interests of both parties". He mainly hopes that the agreement will guarantee access by Syrian farm products to the European market, and, with this in mind, he calls for the "lifting of all obstacles" hampering Syrian sales in Europe. Regarding the industrial side, he said in substance that one cannot make Syrian enterprises competitive with European enterprise without strengthening their competitive abilities, and without removing the protective barriers around the European market.
At the present time, the exercise underway in Syria seems above all marked by the determination to clear up the misunderstanding of declarations by Syrian Planning Minister Dr Issam El Zaïm, who spoke of "European diktat" regarding the prospect of opening up the Syrian market to European products without receiving the assurance of equitable counterpart. "We believe that the development of democracy must be based on national development and not result from foreign diktats, and this is one of the problems in the negotiations", said the minister quoted by press agencies, who even hinted that postponement of negotiations was possible. The head of the European Commission delegation in Damascus, Marc Pierini sought to dispel such misunderstanding by publishing a press release in which he assures that neither the substance of the draft association agreement nor the nature or the style of the negotiation contains anything that could make one think of a "diktat".
Mr Pierini said he was "perplexed" about the presentation of negotiations from government sources and from Syrian media, whereby the EU shows proof of agricultural protectionism and wants to push Syria to accelerate reforms without taking into account the social or budgetary consequences. Syria has "itself decided that it needs to reform its economy and the EU is not seeking to impose a solution on it", states the press release. It specifies that the EU only indicates that a sustained rate of reforms is an essential signal, which would have an important influence on the evolution of investment that Syria needs to relaunch its economy that has been stagnating over the past 20 years". Mr Pierini also stressed that Syria must count on the dynamism of its enterprise and on access guarantees, which are theoretical when all is said and done. "If Europe fixes a zero duty quota for imports in any one category, such as olive oil, say, this does not guarantee a place on its market as Syria would have to compete with other exporters", it is explained in the press release.